Tantalum Recycling announces expanded processing capabilities at the E-Scrap 2015 Electronics Recycling Industry Tradeshow

Tantalum Recycling, a leading global recycling company dedicated to reclaiming and recycling capacitor-grade tantalum (Ta) material for reuse by capacitor manufacturers, announced that it has expanded its capabilities with more than $1 million in chemical processing improvements. The announcement was made at the 13^th annual E-Scrap conference in Orlando, Florida, where Tantalum Recycling was a gold sponsor of the event. Tantalum says the company spent time educating attendees, including electronics recyclers (e-cyclers), materials purchasers, recycling equipment manufacturers, and environmental officials in the recycling industry — about how they can help conserve the limited global supply of tantalum by turning the used tantalum capacitors in the e-waste stream into cash.

Tantalum is a rare metal element used in the manufacturing of capacitors, which are found in virtually all types of consumer electronics. Based on current extraction rates, it has been estimated that there is less than 50 years of raw tantalum material remaining on the planet. Additionally, since capacitor-grade tantalum material is classified as a conflict mineral due to the fact that tantalum powder is primarily mined in unstable regions of the world (e.g., central Africa), it is subject to strict international industry regulations governing its procurement and use in the electronics supply chain. As one of the few companies in the world with the ability to procure, recycle, and process tantalum capacitors completely in-house, Tantalum Recycling, a certified conflict-free trader of this critical material, provides the global electronics industry —spanning OEMs, distributors, contract manufacturers, and e-cyclers — with a profitable way to offload obsolete tantalum capacitors, chemically pure tantalum scrap, and the tantalum powder and wire scrap created during the capacitor manufacturing process, as well as with a reliable source of verified conflict-free tantalum capacitor powder, tantalum carbide powder, and tantalum-capacitor-grade metal wire.

“The capacitor-grade tantalum material that we reclaim through our recycling process requires more processing than the bulk tantalum used for other applications,” said Ronald Gilerman, procurement director at Tantalum Recycling. “So, expanding our operations will allow us to process the tantalum capacitors and scrap that we collect from e-cyclers more quickly and efficiently, ensuring that the electronics industry has a supply of this critical material for years to come.” Gilerman continued, “E-waste collection and e-cycling companies are a rapidly growing segment of the electronics industry supply chain, so announcing our newly expanded capabilities at E-Scrap, where we could leverage our presence and sponsorship to raise targeted awareness about the profit potential associated with recycling the tantalum capacitors in the e-waste stream prior to bulk processing, just made sense. In addition to doing their part to reduce, reuse, and recycle, many E-Scrap attendees can use our simple online recycling process to make up to $70 per reclaimed pound of tantalum materials.”