The Central Government has notified a list of 24 minerals including Tantalum, in Part D of the First Schedule of the MMDR Act, 1957 as Critical and Strategic minerals.
Tantalum is a rare metal with the symbol Ta and atomic number 73.
The Geological Survey of India has taken up 6 projects on exploration for Tantalum and associated minerals in different parts of the country.
Raw tantalum rarely occurs in nature.
It is typically found in the ore columbite-tantalite (usually referred to as coltan).
It has an extremely high melting point, exceeded only by tungsten and rhenium.
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Brazil, and Nigeria are the Major Producers of Ta.