You may not have heard of coltan (short for columbite-tantalite and known industrially as tantalite) before, but it’s one of the key raw materials found in the technological products you use every day. From smartphones to laptops to advanced medical equipment, a range of electronic devices has coltan as a fundamental building block. And coltan now is drawing much attention in Nigeria. How come?

Nigeria administration is making efforts to look into legal mining of solid minerals with coltan being an important one as a means to diversify the country’s economy [/b]and hopes that the mining industry will account for 3%-5% of total GDP by 2025. Why is coltan ore important?

First of all, [b]Nigeria is rich in columbite resources. Columbite is deposited in Nigeria in a large quantity. Nigeria was a major exporter of columbite before the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria.

Columbite deposits occur in Plateau, Kogi, Kano, Nasarawa, Kaduna, and Bauchi states, mainly in the placer deposits of cassiterite.

Secondly, the market prospects of tantalum and columbium are bright. Tantalum and columbium are key elements in high-tech industries. Those industries include electronics, precision ceramics and precision glass; electro-acoustic-optical devices, cemented carbide, aerospace and electronic energy; biomedical science; superconductor; special steel.

The development of those high-tech industries not only widens the application fields of[b] tantalum and columbium[/b], but also stimulates the demand for them. According to the development process of the world's high-tech industry, the tantalum-columbium industry will maintain a growth rate of more than 12% in the next 5-10 years.

Since tantalite and columbite are not traded on any public commodities, their price is determined after negotiations between the seller and the buyer, it’s estimated that the starting point for these negotiations is at $123.61 per kilo.

Strong demand and objective profits stimulate the mining and processing of coltan ore in Africa. However, most coltan mining is done in artisanal and small-scale, which can’t fully extract the coltan ore. Coltan processing machines are gradually taken seriously. The first industrial scale Coltan (Columbite-Tantalite) separation plant in Africa was built in Rwanda in mid-2017.

Since 2015, the current Nigerian administration has been particularly adamant about developing mining sector and has implement fiscal incentives for mining investors. For example, mining operators in Nigeria can now benefit from having their mining equipment shipped to
Nigeria duty-free. Coltan miners start to looking for coltan ore processing machines or to build coltan ore processing plant.

https://www.ftmmachinery.com/blog/ore-beneficiation-plants-for-sale.html

In Africa you must upgrade coltan to a saleable grade using whatever method you choose but most common one would be Gravity Concentration. Gravity concentration machines are favored by Nigerian coltan miners.

Although coltan in Nigeria contains much sticky clay, the raw coltan ore is mostly placer and its properties and composition are simple so it does need lots of complicated machines. Generally, the[b] coltan ore processing plant [/b]has an ore washing machine, belt conveyors, gravity concentration equipment, a dewatering screen. Commonly used gravity separation machines are shaking tables, spiral chutes and jigs. They are suitable for different particle size ranges.

Shaking table
Price: 1, 000$ / Set (lowest price)
Granularity scope: 0.019-2mm
Advantages of shaking table
Easy installation and operation.
Long service of wearing parts.
High enrichment ratio. It is often used to obtain the final concentrate and separate the final tailings.

Spiral chute
Price: 1, 200$ / Set (lowest price)
Granularity scope: 0.02-1mm
Advantages of spiral chute
simple installation, easy operation and convenient maintenance.
It has strong adaptability to the fluctuation of feed quantity and concentration, raw ore grade and particle size, and has no noise.
Reliable operation, large processing capacity and high separation efficiency.

Jig
Granularity scope: 0.02-1mm
Advantage of jig
High selection efficiency.
Large processing capacity.
Small plant area occupied
Easy to operate and maintain

At present, most coltan mines in Nigeria are artificially processing tantalum and niobium ore. The emergence of coltan ore gravity processing plants will inevitably have a certain impact on artisanal miners. However, with the soaring demand for tantalum and niobium, it is the general trend to increase the output of tantalum and niobium.

The advantages of high enrichment ratio, large processing capacity, high grade of coltan concentrate, low investment cost, less environmental pollution and easy dehydration of products make tantalum niobium ore gravity separation plant favored by miners and gradually accepted by more miners.
Nigeria’s mining industriy https://projects.gbreports.com/macig-west-africa-2020/interview-nigerias-ministry-of-mines/
Tantalum market https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/tantalum-market