Tantalum is kind of a niche area. Required in all electronics for capacitors etc. It is also used in the nuclear industry I believe. Tantalum can handle extreme temperatures.
The price of Tantalum or or Tantalite has actually kicked back up in January '16. It is typically traded by the kilogram. As you can see, it is subject to pretty significant price fluctuations. It is a by-product of the gravity-based refining methods they use when refining the spodumene concentrate.
(6 Month view)
http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/tantalite-ore/
For Cattlin the early figures state (We know it will produce a lot more spodumene now):
"The project is believed capable of producing ~110ktpa of 6% Li2O spodumene concentrate, and 1.8ktpa of tantalite (tantalum) concentrate over a ~15 year mine life, and is expected to be commissioned during the MarQ’16."
120 tonnes per annum = 120000kg @ $190USD (Currently) per kilo = $22.8M = $27.36M AUD per annum.
(Note, with more spodumene being produced it will likely increase that Tantalite recovery count significantly)
So worth recovering, definately. The other nice thing is the small amount you need to ship, so transport costs / handling / storage etc. is much easier. You could probably fit the entire annual production at 120tpa in 4 shipping containers at 34t or so per container. If you double that production figure, it's just 8 containers.
Is it a big deal compared to the Lithium figures? Not really, just some more icing on the chilli-cake.
