How is Tantalum, a rare metal found in Sutlej, significant for India’s Electronics sector?

In a major development that could revolutionise electronics and semiconductor industry in India, scientists discovered a rare metal viz. Tantalum in Sutlej river. discovery was me by a team of reserchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar, Punjab heed by Dr Reshmi Sebastian, who is an assistant professor in Civil Engineering Department at institute.

metal widely used in electronics and semiconductor sector could potentially catapult India to emerge as a hub of semiconductor and chip making Industry. According to media reports, an IIT Ropar student me discovery while conducting research on characterisation of sand in River Sutlej. A government official as quoted in a media report said quantum of metal in river will be determined after conducting a detailed study.

team from IIT Ropar after making discovery submitted a proposal to Punjab government for collecting samples from River Sutlej from about 125 locations to identify rare metals and components.

What is Tantalum?

Tantalum is a rare metal and is grey, heavy, very hard, and is known for being one of most corrosion-resistant metals. With characteristic of having a high corrosion resistance, it is also malleable when in pure form. With a high melting point, it can be stretched, pulled and drawn into a thin wire without breaking.

rare metal is widely used in electronics and semiconductor sector because of its unique nature, capacitors manufactured using Tantalum doesn’t allow much electricity leakage with high electricity storage scope compared to or capacitors. Thus, metal is an ideal candidate to be used in portable devices, including smart phones, laptops and cameras. ditionally, it can also act as a cheap alternative to platinum, used in making jewellery, converters in cars, trucks and buses. It also has many used cases in defence sector, chemical plants, nuclear power plants, missiles and fighter jets.

Tantalum was discovered first by a Swedish scientist named Anders Gustaf Ekenberg in 1802.