A somewhat lesser known but nonetheless important raw material is Tantalum. It is used in large quantity for capacitors, as found in any modern electrical appliances. Find more use it as an additive to alloys for special applications and in medical technology. It is predominantly mined in Africa, Brazil and Australia. With increasing miniaturization in electronics (e.g. mp3 player, mobile phones) the demand for tantalum is also rising. These properties led to a high demand, and read the price for tantalum rise sharply in recent years so that today with current prices of well over 1000$ / kg is expected to increase with worldwide proliferation of electronics.