What Is Tantalum?
Tantalum is a costly, high-temperature alloy you won’t find on a typical junk pick-up week. It is a high-strength and high-capacitance alloy that’s great for electronic devices. You often find tantalum as capacitors in high-temperature engines, chemical processing, aerospace, and other nuclear power plant projects. It is also a hefty material similar to lead. The picture to the right is about 8 inches wide by 1 inch thick and weighs over 30 pounds.
What Is The Scrap Price of Tantalum?
Tantalum has been valued from $40-200 per lb. over the last ten years, but don’t get your hopes up too quickly as it is tough to find. Most of the applications that tantalum would be used for are not common everyday scrapping items, and it will be rare to find.
What To Do With Scrap Tantalum
How do you know tantalum when you do find it? Bring it to your local scrap yard and ask if they have a metal analyzer (XRF), and they can let you know whether or not you have tantalum. Because of how rare a metal tantalum is, it may be hard to find an interested buyer. We recommend phoning around your local yards to gauge interest in the metal before bringing it in. Due to its rarity, it may be recommended that you hold onto it until you can find a buyer who can pay you what it’s worth.
Scrap ya Later!!!
-Tom
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