May 12 2011
Rising global demand for tantalum has caused Cabot Corp. (NYSE: CBT) to announce its intention to resume production of the material at its mining facility in Manitoba, Canada, company officials said today.
Cabot previously suspended production at its TANCO facility in 2009, as part of the company's commitment to manage its capacity to market demand.
"We're pleased to resume production at TANCO," said Andrew O'Donovan, General Manager, Cabot Supermetals business. "We're currently in a period of strong market recovery and growth for tantalum. Our customers know they can count on us to deliver high-performance material, and they know that our raw material is 100-percent conflict-free. "
Cabot is a leading global producer of tantalum powder, a high-performance metal powder most commonly used in electronics capacitors. Tantalum makes capacitors highly efficient and reliable - which in turn makes consumer electronics products such as cell phones and computers smaller and more powerful. Tantalum also enables important advances in chemical and pharmaceutical processing, aerospace, energy and ballistic applications.
Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada, or "TANCO," is located close to the Whiteshell Provincial Park, about 180 kilometers northeast of Winnipeg and is wholly owned by Cabot.