Tantalum, the valuable metal
extracted from the ore coltan has been
transformed from a minor by-product of tin
mining to a valuable resource as a direct result
of strong growth in consumption. The development
of tantalum pin head capacitors, an important
tool in the miniaturisation of electrical
devices such as mobile telephones and laptop
computers, has lead to growth of tantalum
production averaging over 10% per year since
1992.
Mobile phones are becoming the
most important communication tool in the world.
There are now more mobile phones than computers,
and the number is expected to reach 2 billion
world wide by the year 2006. Taiwan and
Luxemburg have the highest usage with
respectively 106.45 and 101.34 mobile phones per
100 people. Australia has the 25th
highest usage with 63.97 per 100 people and then
Japan and New Zealand with respectively 62.11
and 61.84 mobiles per 100 people. Although most
countries have less than 1% of their population
that user mobile phones.
