The Hydrothermal Geochemistry of Tantalum

DOI

Tantalum (Ta) is recognized as one of the so-called ‘critical minerals’, with wide applications in the electronics and green energy industry but limited supply chain. An understanding of the speciation and solubility of Ta in hydrothermal solutions is key in helping both Ta exploration and mineral processing. High-resolution X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) can reveal fine features of the XANES spectra, thus help identifying important Ta aqueous complexes (with O, F and Cl) that are hard to identify using conventional XAS detection techniques. This study plans to measure the coordination structure and solubility of Ta in hydrothermal fluoride and chloride solutions at up to 500 °C and 800 bar to better understand the transport and deposition properties of Ta and its fractionation from its geochemical twin niobium (Nb) in hydrothermal systems.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.15151/ESRF-ES-670012634
Metadata Access https://icatplus.esrf.fr/oaipmh/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_datacite&identifier=oai:icatplus.esrf.fr:inv/670012634
Provenance
Creator Denis TESTEMALE ORCID logo; Joël BRUGGER
Publisher ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility)
Publication Year 2025
Rights CC-BY-4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Data from large facility measurement; Collection
Discipline Particles, Nuclei and Fields