President ’ s Welcome

Tantalum has long drawn the ire of machinists, being particularly difficult to cut. Often referred to as being ‘gummy’, cutting of tantalum is characterized by very thick chips, large cutting forces, and a poor surface finish on the machined surface. These unfavourable attributes of the cutting have usually been attributed to bcc tantalum's high strain-hardening capacity, relative softness, and low thermal conductivity; and a small shear plane angle. Here, we show using in situ high-speed imaging at low speeds, and ex situ chip morphology observations at higher commercial cutting speeds (625 mm/s), that the gummy nature of Ta in cutting, including the large forces and thick chips, is actually due to the prevalence of a highly unsteady plastic flow – sinuous flow – characterized by large-amplitude folding and extensive redundant deformation. The sinuous flow and the associated folding are much more amplified and extreme in tantalum (chip thickness ratio, 30–50), and with different morphology, than that observed in fcc Cu and Al (chip thickness ratio, 10–20), wherein this flow mode was first uncovered. The in situ observations are reinforced by force measurements, and chip morphology and cut-surface characterization. The observations also suggest that the sinuous flow, in the same genre of unsteady mesoscale flow modes such as shear banding and segmented flow, is quite prevalent in cutting of highly strain-hardening metal alloys. By application of a surface-adsorbing (SA) medium, e.g., permanent marker ink, to the initial workpiece surface, we show that sinuous flow can be disrupted and replaced by a more energetically favorable flow mode – segmented flow – with thin chips and >70% reduction in the cutting force. This flow disruption is mediated by a local ductile-to-brittle transition in the deformation zone, due to the action of the SA medium – a mechanochemical (MC) effect in large-strain deformation of metals. Equally importantly, the MC effect and underlying segmented flow are beneficial also for machined surface quality – producing nearly an order of magnitude improvement in the surface finish, creating a surface with minimal residual plastic strain, and reducing level of material pull-out. Thus, by use of the SA medium and triggering the MC effect, a promising new opportunity is demonstrated for improving the machinability of Ta by ameliorating its gumminess. The results could enhance the viability of Ta for applications such as gun barrel liners – applications for which it has been hitherto considered but discarded due to its poor machining characteristics.


The Anders Gustaf Ekeberg Tantalum Prize: Shortlist 2020
The Anders Gustaf Ekeberg Tantalum Prize ('Ekeberg Prize') is awarded annually by the T.I.C. for excellence in tantalum research and innovation and the 2020 shortlist shows that the level of interest in element #73 remains as high as ever*.
Technology-driven innovations will ensure the long-term future of the tantalum market and with so many potential new or embryonic applications in development there is every reason for optimism in the future.
The Ekeberg Prize was established by the T.I.C. in 2017 to increase awareness of the many unique properties of tantalum products and the applications in which they excel. To date the Ekeberg Prize has been awarded for outstanding work on the subjects of tantalum capacitors (2018, Dr Yuri Freeman) and additive manufacturing (2019, Nicolas Soro et al).
This year, the seven publications on the shortlist show the great versatility of tantalum in a number of cutting edge applications: • Tantalum recycling by solvent extraction: chloride is better than fluoride • Tantalum (Ta) and niobium (Nb) containing alloy powders for application in additive manufacturing

• Tantalum bone implants printed by selective electron beam manufacturing (SEBM) and their clinical applications
• Discovery of ω-free high-temperature Ti-Ta-X shape memory alloys from first-principles calculations • Fabrication of porous tantalum and tungsten black coatings for artificial earth satellites • Remelt processing and microstructure of selective laser melted Ti25Ta • Tantalum(V) 1,3-propanediolate beta-diketonate solution as a precursor to sol-gel derived, metal oxide thin films

About the Ekeberg Prize
The Ekeberg Prize is named after Dr Anders Gustaf Ekeberg, who discovered tantalum in 1802 while researching mineral chemistry at Uppsala University. Born in 1767, Anders Gustaf Ekeberg was a Swedish scientist, mathematician, and poet. He became a professor at Uppsala University in 1794 and initially made his name by developing advanced analytical techniques and by proposing Swedish names for the common chemical elements according to the principles set out by the "father of modern chemistry" Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier.
Ekeberg discovered the oxide of tantalum in 1802, isolating it from samples of two different minerals collected from mines in Sweden and Finland. However, it was not an easy process to identify tantalum and according to Ekeberg's friend, the chemist Jacob Berzelius, Ekeberg chose the name 'tantalum' partly to reflect the difficulties that he had experienced in reacting the new element with common acids (and partly out of his passion for ancient Greek literature. Tantalus was a demi-god who killed and cooked his son, Pelops, and as punishment was condemned to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit ever eluding his grasp, and the water always receding before he could take a drink; see Bulletin #175 for his full story).
The Ekeberg Prize is sponsored by the T.I.C. and is central to its efforts to publicise the many exceptional benefits afforded by this element. The winner will be recognized by the tantalum industry and receive his/her prize medal, made by the Kazakhstan Mint from pure tantalum metal, at the 61st General Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2020.
Additive manufacturing (AM) opens new opportunities for producing parts with complex geometries and designs that cannot be realized by subtractive machining. While AM enlarges the scope of manufacturing possibilities, the intrinsic properties of the materials applied can limit the range of accessible applications. In this context, Ta and Nb, as well as new Ta-and Nb-based alloy powders, can serve special fields of application; e.g., chemical processing, superconductors, energy, or high-temperature environments. Moreover, additively manufactured Ta/ Nb-containing alloys are a promising alternative for optimization of mechanical and biological performance parameters in medical implants. The present paper gives an overview of the development of pure Ta, Nb, and Ta/ Nb-containing alloy powders that have been specifically designed for application in AM processes. It is shown how spherical powders of this category are produced, optimized, and AM built in test geometries as well as for selected application-oriented complex parts. Mechanical parameters of built specimens obtained from selected pre-alloyed powders are discussed. Studies on the microstructure, chemical composition, and phase composition of the respective built parts are described and examples of applications provided that can derive future benefit of those materials.

How the winner will be chosen
The Ekeberg Prize is judged by an independent Panel of Experts who are selected from around the world to provide an impartial assessment on the technical merit of the shortlisted papers. Members of the current T.I.C. Executive Committee and staff cannot sit on the Panel. This year, we are honoured to have on the Panel the following experts (for biographies please visit www.tanb.org/view/panel-of-experts): • Richard Burt (Kielsinn Inc., Canada), a former T.I.C. President with considerable industry experience (Chair) Tantalum is a refractory metal with a melting point of 2996°C but it offers outstanding biocompatibility for bone implant applications. In this study, the selective electron beam melting (SEBM) process was used for the first time to fabricate both dense and fine lattice tantalum structures. The use of 90-ppm-oxygen Ta powder for SEBM ensured excellent ductility of the as-printed fine Ta  The rapid degradation of the functional properties of many Ti-based alloys is due to the precipitation of the ω phase. In the conventional high-temperature shape memory alloy Ti-Ta, the formation of this phase compromises completely the shape memory effect, and high (>100 o C) transformation temperatures cannot be maintained during cycling. A solution to this problem is the addition of other elements to form Ti-Ta-X alloys, which often modifies the transformation temperatures; due to the largely unexplored space of possible compositions, very few elements are known to stabilize the shape memory effect without decreasing the transformation temperatures below 100 o C. In this study, we use transparent descriptors derived from first-principles calculations to search for new ternary Ti-Ta-X alloys that combine stability and high temperatures. We suggest four alloys with these properties, namely Ti-Ta-Sb, Ti-Ta-Bi, Ti-Ta-In, and Ti-Ta-Sc. Our predictions for the most promising of these alloys, Ti-Ta-Sc, are subsequently fully validated by experimental investigations, the alloy Ti-Ta-Sc showing no traces of ω phase after cycling. Our computational strategy is transferable to other materials and may contribute to suppress ω phase formation in a large class of alloys. Coatings are fabricated using plasma-ion sputtering and codeposition of ultradispersed Ta and Cd particles and Nb-and Mo-doped W and Cd particles. The fabricated coatings consist of a mixture of crystallized cadmium and the amorphized refractory metals. Subjecting the coatings to thermal annealing in vacuum at 800°C for 1 h results in complete evaporation of cadmium from the coatings and the formation of cellular structures, their light-absorbing capacity depending on doping with Nb and Mo. The Nb-doped tantalum coatings and Nb-and Mo-doped tungsten coatings exhibit the highest light absorption. The electrical resistance of fabricated black coatings is sufficient to drain static charge accumulating due to contact with near-Earth plasma.

Fabrication of porous tantalum and tungsten black coatings for artificial earth satellites
Tantalum oxide is ubiquitous in everyday life, from capacitors in electronics to ion conductors for electrochromic windows and electrochemical storage devices. Investigations into sol-gel deposition of tantalum oxide, and its sister niobium oxide, has accelerated since the 1980s and continues to this day. The aim of this study is to synthesize a near UV sensitive, air stable, and low toxicity tantalum sol-gel precursor solution for metal oxide thin films -these attributes promise to reduce manufacturing costs and allow for facile mass production. By utilizing 1D and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance, this study shows that by removing ethanol from the precursor solution at a relatively low temperature and pressure, decomposition of the photosensitive complex can be minimized while obtaining a precursor solution with sufficient stability for storage and processing in the atmosphere. The solution described herein is further modified for inkjet printing, where multiple material characterization techniques demonstrate that the solution can be utilized in low temperature, photochemical solution deposition of tantalum oxide, which is likely amorphous. Tested substrates include amorphous silica, crystalline silicon wafer, and gold/ titanium/PET foil. The hope is that these results may spark future investigations into electronic, optical, and biomedical device fabrication with tantalum oxide, and potentially niobium oxide, based films using the proposed synthesis method.
In this study, elemental powder mixtures of Ti25Ta, an alloy with promise for orthopaedic applications, were processed using Selective Laser Melting (SLM), an emerging manufacturing method for bespoke implants. Material density and homogeneity was investigated as a function of laser scan speed and scanning strategy. Dense (>99.99%), pore free material was obtained at optimised processing parameters and a 'remelt' scan strategy improved melting of the Ta powders, avoiding keyhole formation. Tensile and ultrasonic modulus testing of the SLM Ti25Ta revealed that the processed material had a similar yield strength to SLM commercially pure Ti, namely 426 ± 15 MPa, with a significant reduction of elastic modulus to 65 ± 5 GPa. The remelt scan strategy increased the yield strength to 545 ± 9 MPa, without altering the elastic modulus, however reduced the elongation from 25 ± 1 to 11 ± 4%. TEM analysis revealed the microstructure consisted of predominantly hexagonal α′ martensite with a limited amount of orthorhombic α′′ martensite formed in the Ta-rich regions near partially melted Ta particles, specifically facilitated by enhanced diffusion occurring during the remelt scan. The composition range for the α′′ phase was observed to be approximately 40-50 wt% Ta. Electron back-scattered imaging (BSI) and back scattered diffraction (EBSD) revealed the formation of the prior β grains with close to equiaxed morphology and a slight texture in the α′ martensite. The application of the remelt scan disrupted the prior β grain structure and resulted in randomly oriented α′ laths.

Introduction
The steady increase in the energy of colliders during the past 40 years, which has fuelled some of the greatest discoveries in particle physics, was possible thanks to progress in superconducting materials and accelerator magnets.
The highest particle energies have been reached by protonproton colliders, where beams of high-rigidity travelling on a piecewise circular trajectory require magnetic fields largely in excess of those that can be produced using resistive electromagnets.
Starting from the Tevatron in 1983, through HERA in 1991, RHIC in 2000 and finally the (Large Hadron Collider) LHC in 2008, all large-scale hadron colliders were built using superconducting magnets. Large superconducting magnets for detectors are just as important to high-energy physics experiments as beamline magnets are to particle accelerators.
In fact, detector magnets are where superconductivity took its stronghold, right from the infancy of the technology in the 1960s, with major installations such as the large bubble-chamber solenoid at Argonne National Laboratory, followed by the giant BEBC solenoid at CERN, which held the record for the highest stored energy for many years. A long line of superconducting magnets has provided the magnetic fields for detectors of all large-scale high-energy physics colliders, with the most recent and largest realisation being the LHC experiments, Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) and ATLAS.

Optimisation
All past accelerator and detector magnets had one thing in common: they were built using composite Nb-Ti/Cu wires and cables. Nb-Ti is a ductile alloy with a critical field of 14.5 T and critical temperature of 9.2 K, made from almost equal parts of the two constituents. It was discovered to be superconducting in 1962 and its performance, quality and cost have been optimised over more than half a century of research, development and large-scale industrial production. Indeed, it is unlikely that the performance of the LHC dipole magnets, operated so far at 7.7 T and expected to reach nominal conditions at 8.33 T, can be surpassed using the same superconducting material, or any foreseeable improvement of this alloy.
And yet, approved projects and studies for future circular machines are all calling for the development of superconducting magnets that produce fields beyond those produced for the LHC. These include the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), which is currently taking shape, and the Future Circular Collider design study (FCC), both at CERN, together with studies and programmes outside Europe, such as the Super proton-proton Collider in China (SppC) or the past studies of a Very Large Hadron Collider at Fermilab and the US-DOE Muon Accelerator Program.
This requires that we turn to other superconducting materials and novel magnet technology.

12
T.I.C. Bulletin N o 182: July 2020 © T.I.C. 2020 The HL-LHC springboard To reach its main objective, to increase the levelled LHC luminosity at ATLAS and CMS, and the integrated luminosity by a factor of 10, the HL-LHC requires very large-aperture quadrupoles, with field levels at the coil in the range of 12 T in the interaction regions. These quadrupoles, currently being built and tested at CERN and Fermilab, are the main fruit of the 10-year US-DOE LHC Accelerator Research Program (US-LARP) -a joint venture between CERN, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fermilab and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
In addition, the increased beam intensity calls for collimators to be inserted in locations within the LHC "dispersion suppressor", the portion of the accelerator where the regular magnet lattice is modified to ensure that offmomentum particles are centered in the interaction points. To gain the required space, standard arc dipoles will be substituted by dipoles of shorter length and higher field, approximately 11 T.
As described earlier, such fields require the use of new materials. For the HL-LHC, the material of choice is the intermetallic compound of niobium and tin Nb 3 Sn, which was discovered in 1954. Nb 3 Sn has a critical field of about 30 T and a critical temperature of about 18 K, outperforming Nb-Ti by a factor of two. Though discovered before Nb-Ti, and exhibiting better performance, Nb 3 Sn has not been used for accelerator magnets so far because in its final form it is brittle and cannot withstand large stress and strain without special precautions.

"The HL-LHC is the springboard to the future of high-field accelerator magnets"
In fact, Nb 3 Sn was one of the candidate materials considered for the LHC in the late 1980s and mid 1990s. Already at that time it was demonstrated that accelerator magnets could be built with Nb 3 Sn, but it was also clear that the technology was complex, with a number of critical steps, and not ripe for large-scale production. A good 20 years of progress in basic material performance, cable development, magnet engineering and industrial process control was necessary to reach the present state, during which time the success of the production of Nb 3 Sn for the ITER fusion experiment has given confidence in the credibility of this material for large-scale applications. As a result, magnet experts are now convinced that Nb 3 Sn technology is sufficiently mature to satisfy the challenging field levels required by the HL-LHC.

A difficult recipe
The present manufacturing recipe for Nb 3 Sn accelerator magnets consists of winding the magnet coil with glass-fibre insulated cables made of multi-filamentary wires that contain Nb and Sn precursors in a Cu matrix.
In this form the cables can be handled and plastically deformed without breakage. The coils then undergo heat treatment, typically at a temperature of around 650 °C, during which the precursor elements react chemically and form the desired Nb 3 Sn superconducting phase.
At this stage, the reacted coil is extremely fragile and needs to be protected from any mechanical action. This is done by injecting a polymer, which fills the interstitial spaces among cables, and is subsequently cured to become a matrix of hardened plastic providing cohesion and support to the cables.
The above process, though conceptually simple, has a number of technical difficulties that call for top-of-the-line engineering and production control. To give some examples, the texture of the electrical insulation, consisting of a few tenths of mm of glass fibre, needs to be able to withstand the high-temperature heat-treatment step, but also retain dielectric and mechanical properties at liquid-helium temperatures 1000 °C lower. The superconducting wire also changes its dimensions by a few percent, which is orders of magnitude larger than the dimensional accuracy requested for field quality and therefore must be predicted and accommodated for by appropriate magnet and tooling design.
The finished coil, even if it is made solid by the polymer cast, still remains stress and strain sensitive. The level of stress that can be tolerated without breakage can be up to 150 MPa, to be compared to the electromagnetic stress of optimised magnets operating at 12 T that can reach levels in the range of 100 MPa. This does not leave much headroom for engineering margins and manufacturing tolerances.
Finally, protecting high-field magnets from quenches, with their large stored energy, requires that the protection system has a very fast reaction -three times faster than at the LHC -and excellent noise rejection to avoid false trips related to flux jumps in the large Nb 3 Sn filaments.

The next jump
The CERN magnet group, in collaboration with the US-DOE laboratories participating in the LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project, is in the process of addressing these and other challenges, finding solutions suitable for a magnet production on the scale required for the HL-LHC.
A total of six 11 T dipoles (each about 6 m long) and 20 inner triplet quadrupoles (up to 7.5 m long) are in production at CERN and in the US, and the first magnets have been tested (see "Power couple" image on the previous page).
And yet, it is clear that we are not ready to extrapolate such production on a much larger scale, i.e. to the thousands of magnets required for a possible future hadron collider such as FCC-hh.  CERN, 1996) A Rutherford cabling machine is used to assemble the highperformance cables, made from state-of-the-art Nb 3 Sn conductor, for the LHC High Luminosity upgrade. (Photo: Max Brice/CERN) This is exactly why the HL-LHC is so critical to the development of high-field magnets for future accelerators: not only will it be the first demonstration of Nb 3 Sn magnets in operation, steering and colliding beams, but by building it on a scale that can be managed at the laboratory level we have a unique opportunity to identify all the areas of necessary development, and the open technology issues, to allow the next jump. Beyond its prime physics objective, the HL-LHC is therefore the springboard to the future of high-field accelerator magnets.

Climb to higher peak fields
For future circular colliders, the target dipole field has been set at 16 T for FCC-hh, allowing proton-proton collisions at an energy of 100 TeV, while China's proposed pp collider (SppC) aims at a 12 T dipole field, to be followed by a 20 T dipole. Are these field levels realistic? And based on which technology?
Looking at the dipole fields produced by Nb 3 Sn development magnets during the past 40 years (see figure 1), fields up to 16 T have been achieved in R&D demonstrators, suggesting that the FCC target can be reached. In 2018 "FRESCA2" -a large-aperture (100 mm) dipole developed over the past decade through a collaboration between CERN and CEA-Saclay in the framework of the European Union project EuCARD -attained a record field of 14.6 T at 1.9 K (13.9 T at 4.5 K).
Another very recent result, obtained in June 2019, is the successful test at Fermilab by the US Magnet Development Programme (MDP) of a "cos-theta" dipole with an aperture of 60 mm called MDPCT1 (see "Cos-theta 1" image right), which reached a field of 14.1 T a t 4.5 K.
In February this year, the CERN magnet group set a new Nb 3 Sn record with an enhanced racetrack model coil (eRMC), developed in the framework of the FCC study. The setup, which consists of two racetrack coils assembled without midplane gap (see "racetrack" image on next page), produced a 16.36 T central field at 1.9 K and a 16.5 T peak field on the coil, which is the highest ever reached for a magnet of this configuration. The magnet was also tested at 4.5 K and reached a field of about 16.3 T. These results send a positive signal for the feasibility of next-generation hadron colliders.
A field of 16 T seems to be the upper limit that can be reached with a Nb 3 Sn accelerator magnet. Indeed, though the conductor performance can still be improved, as demonstrated by recent results obtained at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL), Ohio State University and Fermilab within the scope of the US-MDP, this is the point at which the material itself will run out of steam. As for any other superconductor, the critical current density drops as the field grows, requiring an increasing amount of material to carry a given current.
The effect becomes dramatic when approaching a significant fraction of the critical field. Akin to Nb-Ti in the region of 8 T, a further field increase with Nb 3 Sn beyond 16 T would require an exceedingly large coil and an impractical amount of conductor.

Nb 3 Sn is technically the low-temperature superconductor with the highest performance
Reaching the ultimate performance of Nb 3 Sn, which will be situated between the present 12 T and the expected maximum of 16 T, still requires much work. The technology issues identified by the ongoing work on the HL-LHC magnets are exacerbated by the increase in field, electromagnetic force and stored energy.
Innovative industrial solutions will be needed, and the conductor itself brought to a level of maturity comparable to Nb-Ti in terms of performance, quality and cost. This work is the core of the ongoing FCC magnet-development program that CERN is pursuing in collaboration with laboratories, universities and industries worldwide.
As the limit of Nb 3 Sn comes into view, we see history repeating itself: the only way to push beyond it to higher fields will be to resort to new materials. Since Nb 3 Sn is technically the low-temperature superconductor (LTS) with the highest performance, this will require a shift to high-temperature superconductors.
The MDP "cos-theta 1" dipole accelerator magnet at Fermilab, which achieved a field of 14.1 T (the highest ever achieved for such a device at an operational temperature of 4.5 K) in 2019. Photo: Fermilab Figure 1: Record fields attained with Nb 3 Sn dipole magnets of various configurations and dimensions, and either at liquid (4.2 K, red) or superfluid (1.9 K, blue) helium temperature. Solid symbols are short (< 1 m) demonstrator "racetracks" with no bore, while open symbols are short models and long magnets with bore. For comparison, superconducting colliders past and present are shown as triangles. Credit: CERN High-temperature superconductivity (HTS), discovered in 1986, is of great relevance in the quest for high fields. When operated at low temperature (the same liquid-helium range as LTS), HTS materials have exceedingly large critical fields in the range of 100 T and above.
And yet, only recently has the material and magnet engineering reached the point where HTS materials can generate magnetic fields in excess of LTS ones. The first user applications coming to fruition are ultra-high-field NMR magnets, as recently delivered by Bruker Biospin, and the intense magnetic fields required by materials science, for example the 32 T all-superconducting user facility built at NHMFL.
As for their application in accelerator magnets, the potential of HTS to make a quantum leap is enormous. But it is also clear that the tough challenges that needed to be solved for Nb 3 Sn will escalate to a formidable level in HTS accelerator magnets. The magnetic force scales with the square of the field produced by the magnet, and for HTS the problem will no longer be whether the material can carry the super-currents, but rather how to manage stresses approaching structural material limits. Stored energy has the same squaredependence on the field, and quench detection and protection in large HTS magnets are still a spectacular challenge.
In fact, HTS magnet engineering will probably differ so much from the LTS paradigm that it is fair to say that we do not yet know whether we have identified all the issues that need to be solved. HTS is the most exciting class of material to work with; the new world for brave explorers. But it is still too early to count on practical applications, not least because the production cost for this rather complex class of ceramic materials is about two orders of magnitude higher than that of good-old Nb-Ti.
It is thus logical to expect the near future to be based mainly on Nb 3 Sn. With the first demonstration to come imminently in the LHC, we need to consolidate the technology and bring it to the maturity necessary on a large-scale production.
A Nb 3 Sn demonstrator racetrack dipole magnet with no bore developed at CERN in the framework of the Future Circular Collider study, which reached a record peak field of 16.5 T in February. Photo: J Perez/CERN T.I.C. Bulletin N o 182: July 2020 © T.I.C. 2020 This may likely take place in steps -exploring 12 T territory first, while seeking the solutions to the challenges of ultimate Nb 3 Sn performance towards 16 T -and could take as long as a decade. For China's SppC, iron-based HTS has been suggested as a route to 20 T dipoles. This technology study is interesting from the point of view of the material, but the magnet technology for iron-based superconductors is still rather far away.
Meanwhile, nurtured by novel ideas and innovative solutions, HTS could grow from the present state of a material of great potential to its first applications. The LHC already uses HTS tapes (based on Bi-2223) for the superconducting part of the current leads. The HL-LHC will go further, by pioneering the use of MgB 2 to transport the large currents required to power the new magnets over considerable distances (thereby shielding power converters and making maintenance much easier). The grand challenges posed by HTS will likely require a revolution rather than an evolution of magnet technology, and significant technology advancement leading to large-scale application in accelerators can only be imagined on the 25-year horizon.

Road to the future
There are two important messages to retain from this rather simplified perspective on high-field magnets for accelerators. Firstly, given the long lead times of this technology, and even in times of uncertainty, it is important to maintain a healthy and ambitious programme so that the next step in technology is at hand when critical decisions on the accelerators of the future are due. The second message is that with such long development cycles and very specific technology, it is not realistic to rely on the private sector to advance and sustain the specific demands of HEP. In fact, the business model of high-energy physics is very peculiar, involving long investment times followed by short production bursts, and not sustainable by present industry standards. So, without taking the place of industry, it is crucial to secure critical know-how and infrastructure within the field to meet development needs and ensure the long-term future of our accelerators, present and to come.

What next for CERN?
On June 19th the CERN Council unanimously endorsed the idea of building a newer, larger circular supercollider, dubbed the Future Circular Collider (FCC). The move is the first step toward building a 100 TeV 100-kilometer (62 mile) circumference collider around Geneva. The new collider is scheduled to be operational by 2040 and the final cost is expected to be around €21 billion (US$23.5 billion).
The proposed new collider would be used for further research into the Higgs boson as well as research into topics like the nature of dark matter. "Such a machine would produce copious amounts of Higgs bosons in a very clean environment, would make dramatic progress in mapping the diverse interactions of the Higgs boson with other particles and would form an essential part of a rich research program, allowing measurements of extremely high precision", according to a statement by CERN.
The next step will be a technical and financial feasibility study for the new collider. The 61st General Assembly is scheduled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from October 11th to 14th 2020.
Please note that, while we sincerely hope this event will be able to take place, at time of publication this cannot be guaranteed due to uncertainties caused by the Covid-19 global pandemic. The Executive Committee asks for your understanding as it continues to monitor the situation closely. A final decision will be taken by early August. Please look out for further updates in due course.
Full details, including how to book tickets, sponsors and general information about the event will be circulated and made available at www.tanb.org in due course.
The following papers are expected. The announced presenter is the first author listed, unless otherwise specified. Please note that this list is subject to change.

Environmental stability of tantalum-polymer capacitors
by Dr Yuri Freeman and Dr Philip Lessner

KEMET Electronics Corporation
Capacitance stability over a broad range of frequencies and temperatures is one of the major advantages of polymer tantalum (Ta) capacitors in comparison to Wet and MnO 2 Tantalum capacitors. However, several recent publications showed some changes of the capacitance and other AC and DC characteristics of Polymer Ta capacitors with temperature and humidity. A research project was performed by KEMET Electronics in cooperation with the Clemson University and North Carolina State University to understand the nature of these changes in electrical characteristics of polymer tantalum capacitors with the change in environmental parameters and develop technological principles to address these changes. We present the most important scientific and practical results of this mutual industry-academia research project.

The tech hardware market and the electronics supply chain
by Renzo DeMeo

Prismark
The tech hardware industry is worth over $2 trillion and supports modern infrastructure and a significant part of the consumer lifestyle. This presentation will describe the hardware electronics market and its historical growth to where it is today. It will define the various segments from mobile phones to automotive. It will also review the supporting supply chain from components to materials. Lastly, we will provide a short term and long-term outlook, highlighting some of the significant technical, structural, and market-related trends affecting the industry, including disruptions and opportunities from the Covid-19 pandemic. Ningxia Orient Tantalum Industry Co. Ltd In this paper, the influence of raw material category, sintering process and grinding process on the properties of tantalum-niobium composite carbide powder is discussed, and the physical characteristics of tantalum-niobium carbides are analyzed. In the meantime, Fisher average particle size, particle size distribution, apparent density, porosity and morphology of carbides are analyzed to determine comprehensive influence of various factors on the product quality. The results show that the particle size of the raw material has a great influence on the particle size of the product, showing the particle heredity rule. The porosity and apparent density of carbide products are also related to the particle size of the raw material. The smaller the particle size of the raw material, the smaller the porosity, while the apparent density tends to increase. However, the "arch bridge" formed between the agglomerated particles is destroyed due to the airflow pulverization of carbides with the same raw materials, the apparent density increases when the average particle size decreases.
Tantalum capacitors support to medical lung ventilators and telecom 5G infrastructure challenges by Tomas Zednicek Ph.D.

European Passive Components Institute (EPCI)
2020 was the year of the pandemic that impacted the lives of most people on Earth. Medical infrastructure was highly overloaded with shortage of critical medical equipment namely lung ventilators with tantalum capacitors onboard. Thus, tantalum capacitors have been on the list of critical supply chain brought to attention of the local governments. The presentation will provide a brief overview of tantalum capacitor applications in lung ventilators and its function. The pandemic situation delayed implementation of 5G telecom infrastructure to 2021 and the second part of the presentation will discuss challenges for tantalum capacitors there. We are just entering the high speed 5G communication era that will enable instantaneous connectivity to billions of devices. SMART cities will offer connections to cloud servers with faster data content transfer to users (such as movie streaming) and low latency applications (such as vehicle collision avoidance systems). Simply, 5G will provide the speed, low latency and connectivity to enable a new generation of applications, services and business opportunities that have not been seen before. Is there a place for tantalum capacitors in the base station hardware designs?
Cost sharing and value of implementing supply chain due diligence by Rashad Abelson OECD On-going discussions in multi-stakeholder forums have raised important questions on the perceived imbalance of how due diligence costs and benefits are distributed along the supply chain. Governments, private sector representatives, and civil society organisations participating in the OECD Responsible Minerals Implementation Programme have been involved in discussions between 2018 and 2020, with a view to encourage stakeholders to devise innovative solutions to address this potential imbalance. The OECD Secretariat is currently drafting a position paper to inform discussion on this topic by giving stakeholders a better understanding of how the costs of due diligence are currently distributed and how they can potentially be differently distributed across the supply chain, appropriately recognizing the value and benefits of due diligence. The objective of this work is to identify research questions to close gaps in information and advance the discussion with a view to finding avenues for a resolution.

T.I.C. 2020 annual statistics presentation by David Knudson
Tantalum-Niobium International Study Center (T.I.C.) This presentation will provide a comprehensive statistical report on collected T.I.C. member data for calendar years 2010 through 2019 along with up to date publicly sourced international trade data on tantalum and niobium raw materials and products. Also covered will be the collection practices of publicly available international trade data and the methodology for its integration with T.I.C. member collected trade data. Each quarter the T.I.C. administers the collection of anonymous statistics data from its members by an independent intermediary (Miller Roskell Ltd, a chartered accountant). This data is then verified and certified by Miller Roskell Ltd and provided to the T.I. the T.I.C. The data is then collated and presented in report form to our members, also on a quarterly schedule. The categories for data collected are tantalum and niobium raw materials, mining production and trading receipts, tantalum receipts by processors, and tantalum and niobium product shipments by processors.

Shipping NORM material: complex shipments in a complicated world
by Kevin Loyens TAM International LP Shipping NORM material that contains traces of uranium or thorium can be very challenging and intimidating due to the complicated and often restrictive regulations that apply. Once cargo is categorized as "IMO Cass 7" the framework for transportation significantly changes. Not only do different regulations apply in different jurisdictions. These regulations change regularly and are sometimes interpreted and applied differently in different parts of the world. Different paperwork is required, transport options are more limited and there will be implications on insurance, safety and security policies and many other items in the day-to-day management of a company's supply chain. In this everchanging environment, it is important for companies to understand the how and why of proper classification of NORM material. Properly complying with the regulations will impact the packaging that is used, labeling requirements and how transport of the cargo is organized. TAM International is a Canadian company with a global network that is specialized in handling, packaging and worldwide transport of radioactive materials. With more than 16 years of experience in the nuclear, mining and rare earth industries, TAM is well positioned to provide an overview of best practices and dos and don'ts. Properly understanding the regulatory, transport and handling framework of NORM will enable companies to implement a proper strategy for managing these materials throughout their supply chain.

EU H2020 project TARANTULA: recovery of tungsten, niobium and tantalum occurring as by-products in mining and processing waste streams
by Amal Siriwardana. Presented by Dr Nader Akil EU H2020 project TARANTULA, grant agreement # 821159 The extraordinary properties of refractory metals, the unlikeliness of their future substitution and their use in booming industries will sustain a high EU demand for tungsten (W), niobium (Nb) and tantalum (Ta). Despite all three being classified as Critical Raw Materials (CRM) by the European Commission (EC), fractions of these indispensable metals are dissipated as by-products in mining waste streams as well as process scrap. To stimulate their recovery from such complex, low-grade resources, TARANTULA (H2020 -GA: 821159) will develop a suite of cost-effective, scalable and eco-friendly -bio-, hydro-, iono-, solvo-, pyro-and electrometallurgical -processes with high selectivity and recovery rates. These novel technologies, each representing an alternative for one or more process steps of state-of-the-art processing lines, will form new routes towards market-ready metals, metal oxides and metal carbides. Flexibility will be the cornerstone of the overall process flowsheet to enable recovery of all three elements (W, Nb,Ta), thereby minimising the CAPEX required for future processing installations. Following systematic research and innovation activities at lab scale, the envisioned technologies will be brought to TRL3-5 and, based on performance, validated at prototype level by experienced industrial partners. In parallel, future by-product recovery will be supported by carrying out a comprehensive identification and assessment of existing un/underexploited secondary sources of W, Nb and Ta.

Meeting market expectations of minerals due diligence -an update on the Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP) and the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI)
by Catherine Tyson and Leah Butler

Responsible Minerals Initiative
Over the past several years, market expectations for due diligence for responsible mineral supply chains have evolved as companies deepen their understanding of due diligence and the regulatory imperative for meeting these expectations has grown. Working together, the RMI and its stakeholders, including the T.I.C., continue to develop programs and tools to meet the expectations of actors along mineral supply chains and satisfy regulatory demands. In this paper and presentation, the RMI will address the current status and progress of smelter due diligence in the tantalum sector, updates to RMI's programs, new RMI program and tool offerings, the status of the RMAP's application for recognition by the European Commission, update on challenges to minerals due diligence in the wake of Covid-19, and opportunities for future collaboration with the tantalum industry. The level of interest in NORM and denial of shipment (DoS) at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been increasing steadily in recent years, as shipping lines have consolidated and transporting NORM and Class 7 (radioactive) cargos has become more and more difficult. In 2018, Germany made a proposal at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) conference to increase the NORM cut-off from 10 Bq/g to 30 Bq/g for tantalite. The IMO asked the IAEA for advice on the issue and late last year the IAEA created a new 'NORM exemption group', of which T.I.C. is a member, to examine this issue and draft a reply to the IMO. However, it quickly became apparent that this question could not be examined in isolation and while examining the broader context of NORM transport it became clear that the IAEA's two core standards -the Basic Safety Standard (GSR part 3) and the transport regulations (SSR-6 and guidance SSG-26) -are not aligned. The NORM exemption group is currently working to create a "context paper" (a white paper) that will be presented to the IAEA TRANSSC-41 meeting in November 2020. It is expected that this context paper will recommend aligning SSR-6 with the senior regulation, GSR Part 3, a result which is likely to lead to an increase in the NORM exemption level. This presentation will discuss the alignment issue, how alignment of SSR-6 and GSR part 3 could change the NORM exemption level, and bring GA61 delegates fully up to speed with this important project.

Development of novel spherical multinary alloy powders containing tantalum and niobium for optimization of intrinsic material properties in additive manufacturing (AM)
by Dr Markus Weinmann, Dr Christoph Schnitter and Dr Melanie Stenzel

TANIOBIS GmbH
The high degree of freedom for geometric designs opened by additive processes is often seen as a main driver for improvement of components but design optimization alone is not enough to achieve highest component performance. Intrinsic material properties also play a vital role to fit parameters to specific requirements of applications. This is especially relevant for applications in which inappropriate material properties may cause fatal failure. The present paper gives an overview of the development and optimization of refractory metal-based spherical multinary alloy powders with variable composition for biomedical applications. It will be shown how alloy powders based on titanium, tantalum and niobium (Ti/Nb/Ta) applied in laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) can offer improved biocompatibility and optimized mechanical values compared to conventionally applied implant materials. It will be further shown how those findings can be transferred to the development of multinary and high entropy alloys.

Quantitative assessment of tantalum consumption in the United States from 2002 to 2018
by Dr Abraham Padilla and Dr Nedal Nassar

U.S. Geological Survey
Tantalum has received considerable attention in recent years largely due to its increasing use in modern electronics and the high risks associated with its supply chain. In 2018, approximately 80% of the world's supply of tantalum originated from countries in Africa, with nearly 40% thought to originate in the DRC alone. The United States (U.S.), a leading consumer of tantalum materials, has been entirely reliant on imports for its supply of primary tantalum since the 1950s. However, properly quantifying total U.S. tantalum consumption is problematic because two of the most important intermediate forms of tantalum (Ta 2 O 5 and K 2 TaF 7 ) do not have unique tariff codes and thus a significant part of tantalum material trade is not documented. Furthermore, tantalum incorporated in semi-finished and finished goods is not tracked as tantalum. As a result, estimates of consumption only capture a fraction of the total volume of tantalum consumed in any given year. In this study, we perform a material flow analysis (MFA) to quantify the total volume of tantalum consumed in the U.S. from 2002 through 2018. Our results indicate that U.S. tantalum consumption may be significantly higher, and up to twice as much at times, than previously estimated. Interestingly, our estimates show that some years U.S. tantalum demand has exceeded the volume of primary tantalum produced globally according to U.S. Geological Survey estimates. This suggests that either a significant volume of global primary tantalum production is not accounted for, the volume of secondary (recycled) tantalum available is significantly underestimated, or both. Lastly, the detailed MFA results allow us to quantify the volume of tantalum in-use as well as the quantity that may potentially be available for recycling in any given year, thereby providing valuable insight to both industry and policymakers. Covid is having a direct impact on the livelihoods of ASM communities through market and logistic challenges. Moreover, reduced circumstances and virus control measures are likely to drive instability and erode basic rights in the region, making ITSCI's work all the more critical. For example, school closure increases risk of children at mines and significant reduction in mineral earnings can stimulate return to criminal behavior and armed groups. Reduced budgets have inevitably resulted in fewer field visits leading to new challenges in data collection, whilst government measures have impacted the extensive stakeholder engagement activities needed to achieve incident resolution. Therefore, ITSCI through its implementing partner Pact is continuing essential field activities such as incident reporting and mitigation, and support to upstream actors in maintaining responsible business and sufficient resilience for economic recovery. This means ensuring that we can get back to pre-Covid levels of activity as the minimum for sustainable activities and OECD alignment. Additionally, we have taken due care with virus control measures to safeguard our own teams and the people we interact with; and sought to leverage our networks, infrastructure, expertise and trust with ASM communities to provide Covid health advice and support wherever possible. This paper outlines some of the challenges we have faced during the Covid crisis, our measures to adjust and adapt, and our learning from the experience.

The role of niobium at CERN
by Bernardo Bordini and Amalia Ballarino CERN Due to its superconducting properties niobium (Nb) is a key material for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest particle accelerator at CERN. The LHC contains 1200 tonnes of high quality Nb-Ti cables distributed in almost 10,000 superconducting magnets cooled by 130 tonnes of helium at 1.9 and 4.2 K. These cables are constituted by composite wires, smaller than 1 mm in diameter, where thousands of Nb-Ti filaments are embedded in high purity copper matrix (Nb-Ti weight ratio about 40%). With the LHC, where the nominal operating field of the dipoles is 8.33 T at 1.9 K, Nb-Ti has most likely reached its physical limits in terms of the maximum magnetic field that can be produced with sufficient operating margins. Because of that, for the High Luminosity upgrade of the LHC (HL-LHC), which is foreseen for 2025 and is mainly aiming in replacing the present quadrupole Nb-Ti magnets of the interaction regions with more powerful magnets, CERN, in collaboration with the US HL-LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project (AUP), has developed and is producing 11-12 T accelerator magnets based on the Nb 3 Sn superconductor. For this project CERN procured about 30 tons of state of the art Nb 3 Sn wires and a similar amount was procured by the US AUP. Furthermore, for the Future Circular Collider design study CERN is considering a 100 km accelerator based on 16 T Nb 3 Sn accelerator magnets requiring about 6000 tons of Nb 3 Sn wires (and 3000 tons of Nb-Ti). In this paper we discuss the present and future role of Nb for CERN and the High Energy Physics community at large. The EPRM (European Partnership for Responsible Minerals) has launched the Due Diligence Hub to assist industry with supply chain due diligence. The new website provides easy access to existing information and tools aggregated from a wide range of websites and sources, all under one roof and targeted to specific business needs. This will make it easier to conduct due diligence in your supply chain as it will become even more important once the EU Conflict Mineral Regulation 2017/821 comes into force.

T.I.C.'s 61st General
The EU regulation requires all importers to the EU of tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold ("3TG") over 1000 kg per year to register their company and undertake due diligence on their supply chain from January 1st 2021.

Introducing the Due Diligence Hub
With the Due Diligence Hub, the EPRM wants to support supply chain actors to improve their due diligence practices. It is the only portal that provides this wealth of information, allowing users to easily search for content that corresponds to their business requirements. Given the ever-evolving nature of the mineral sector, the EPRM will regularly review its support to supply chain actors, as well as consider opportunities to expand its scope in the future.
At the Due Diligence Hub you will find: • A step-by-step guide to conducting due diligence • 139 international standards and guides classified by minerals and supply chain tier • 16 case studies demonstrating how other companies undertake due diligence, to share best practice The EPRM is a multi-stakeholder partnership established with the goal to create better social and economic conditions for mine workers and local mining communities, by increasing the number of mines that adopt responsible mining practices in conflict and highrisk areas (CAHRAs).
The T.I.C. has been a member of EPRM since 2017 and has actively participated in developing the Due Diligence Hub.
The Due Diligence Hub is free to use thanks to the generosity of EPRM members and donors.

Interview: Mr Tiberio Cabianca, Public Health England and chair of TRANSSC's NORM Exemption Group
Regular readers of the Bulletin will know that the T.I.C. invests a lot of time with regard to the Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) exemption level (the 2007 transport risk assessment and participation in TRANSSC 1 since 2008, and more recently with the initiative to raise the exemption level to 30 Bq/g as reported in Bulletin #180).
Recently TRANSSC established a new working group to examine this issue, headed by Mr Tiberio Cabianca. Mr Cabianca has over 25 years' experience in radiological assessment modelling, 5 years as a member of IAEA's Waste Safety Section of the Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety. He is the current chair of the IAEA's Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments (MODARIA) II programme and a member of the UK delegation at the Transport Safety Standards Committee (TRANSSC).
On Monday June 29th Mr Cabianca (TC) was interviewed by T.I.C. Director, Roland Chavasse (RC), and Ulric Schwela (US) of Salus Mineralis Ltd (who it helping the Association on NORM issues). We asked him about the work being done by the new 'NORM exemption group' to review the exemption levels for the transport of NORM, including, of course, tantalum-containing raw materials.

RC: Thank you for making time to talk with us today. Could you tell us what is the NORM exemption group and what it is currently working on?
TC: It is important to understand the role of the IAEA and how it works, and to appreciate that the transport regulations cannot be changed for one specific material (i.e. an exemption for tantalum minerals alone is not possible). The NORM exemption group has been set up recently to look at the exemption regulations that apply to the transport of NORM. It is part of TRANSSC's Technical Transport Expert Group (TTEG) on Radiation Protection (RP), which has the task to answer requests of a technical nature put forward to the Safety Committee in relation to the IAEA transport regulations.
With regard to the original request to look at the exemption level for tantalum raw materials, it is important to understand that the IAEA does not wish to create specific exemptions for different materials, as it may open the door to a long list of exemptions for specific products.
The current NORM exemption group is as a result of how TRANSSC operates: until recently TRANSSC would have brought together an ad hoc group of volunteers to look at an issue and a response would have taken several years, but now there is a system of using Technical Transport Expert Groups (TTEG), made up of technical experts, which helps streamline things a great deal. TTEGs could become structured more formally, but overall, they are good, useful, and still evolving.
Furthermore, the Chair of TRANSSC, Mr Paul Hinrichsen, has given me the impression that he is also keen to support this work. Mr Hinrichsen first brought the IMO question about NORM 2 to my attention, as chair of the Radiation Protection (RP) TTEG in early October 2019, because he believes the issue is more relevant to the RP-TTEG, which has the right expertise to calculate values for radionuclides.

RC:
It sounds like the IMO's NORM exemption question arrived at just the right time.

US:
Regarding the original IMO question, how has your work evolved since last October?
TC: When I was first contacted by Mr Hinrichsen about the proposal to IMO, I started explaining the differences in the exemption provisions between the 'new Basic Safety Standards' (General Safety Requirements Part 3 (GSR Part 3)) and the transport regulations (Safety Standards Series 6 (SSR-6)). [GSR Part 3 is one of the core IAEA regulations which other IAEA regulations should be consistent with].(GSR Part. ……………………………………..
Most TRANSSC members are not aware that there are so many differences and that some parts of the exemption regulations or provisions don't fit together, and now this is being recognised.
This means that instead of tackling "tantalum NORM" narrowly we will be looking at the subject in a more comprehensive way.

RC:
Harmonization of the regulations covering NORM would be an important achievement. What are the next steps?
TC: The NORM exemption group will write a summary note to TRANSSC, suggesting that we run specific calculations to come up with new values for exemption of NORM, in line with the higher dose criterion given in GSR Part 3. The original proposal to the IMO now appears to have been overtaken by the study into the exemption of NORM.

US:
What did you find when preparing the note? Did you find any new surprises?

TC:
We were aware of most of the inconsistencies, but we also found some new ones. There is a particular clause in GSR Part 3 relevant to NORM which is not applied to transport of radioactive material in bulk and I believe that it should apply. The transport regulations are unique and written in a different way because they deal with a particular activity that has specific requirements, and it is useful that we are able to carry out a comprehensive review.
We also found inconsistencies in the guidance that comes with the transport regulations (SSG-26), probably due to being written by different people at different times.

US:
Could you recap briefly how the numbers in the transport regulations came about in the first place?
TC: Current exemption values in the IAEA regulations date back to the mid 1990s and were first published in the 1996 edition of the IAEA Basic Safety Standards. With the 1996 edition of the IAEA transport regulations, it was decided to go from a general value for exemption [70 Bq/g], to radionuclide specific values in line with the BSS. In preparation for this, a study was published with calculations for transport scenarios, however the values in the IAEA BSS were adopted as the transport figures were broadly similar. This was done with good intentions, to ensure consistency between the two sets of regulations, and to make operations easier.

US:
Has any country implemented the BSS as they are?
TC: In some countries they are implemented as such, but in general there are differences between national regulations and the IAEA BSS because the IAEA BSS in general are not legally binding, but represent an international framework for regulations. It is a different question for the IAEA transport regulations which are incorporated in the UN Model Regulations for the transport of dangerous goods. Regarding exemption values many countries have produced their own exemption values which are different from those in the IAEA BSS.

RC:
What does the NORM exemption group hope to do about harmonisation and alignment, and is it more straightforward to change the GSR Part 3 or SSR-6?
TC: SSR-6 is by far the easier of the two to revise; the revision is done by TRANSSC with few external stakeholders, following the UN system of two-yearly review cycles. By contrast, GSR Part 3, which was published in 2014, replaced the previous BSS published in 1996, so there were 18 years between the two. The process itself to create GSR Part 3 took about eight years and was driven by the International Commission for Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommendations published in 2007. There is no plan to change the ICRP recommendations any time soon.

US:
What are the other challenges when trying to achieve harmonisation between GSR Part 3 and SSR-6? TC: : The main challenge is to come up with exemption values all TRANSSC members agree with. Transport of radioactive material is a global business and therefore we need consistency between how countries use the regulations and a single set of exemption values. In theory ad hoc exemption values for transport can be agreed between 2-3 countries, or within larger groups of countries, like the EU, but for practical reasons it is preferable to have a single set of exemption values in the IAEA regulations.

RC:
What plans have you for TRANSSC 41, scheduled for November 2020, and beyond? TC: At TRANSSC 41 I will present a note with the rationale for the need to calculate new exemption values for NORM and ask TRANSSC members to give the green light for this. I expect TRANSSC members to broadly be in support following the preliminary discussions that have taken place. To come up with transport specific values for NORM we will develop a method, a procedure to estimate the exposure of different people involved in the transport of NORM. It will be a simple, idealised model, for both workers and other people, based on relevant information, robust enough to give confidence that people are not unduly exposed.
This way of working is not new and has been done in radiation protection many times. We will review work done in the past, collect data from different studies including the NORM CRP report, and any information T.I.C. members can provide on working practices, and put together transport specific exposure scenarios. How is their material transported, what is the geometry, distances, how long for, and so forth?

US:
We are after all looking at transport of materials above 10 Bq/g, and facilities should be regulated anyway for material above 1 Bq/g, therefore if a facility isn't already following those regulations, no amount of transport regulation is going to change this.

TC:
The NORM exemption group will meet in November at TRANSSC 41. I expect that the calculations will be done by members of the A1/A2 group which I chair. These experts are familiar with the methods to calculate exemption values and I have worked with them for a number of years and I trust them. A lot of the preliminary work will be to discuss the general types of scenarios we will need to develop for the calculations. Fortunately there are a limited number of radionuclides for NORM, so I expect that it can be done relatively quickly. I think that it would be really useful for the T.I.C. delegation to be there too because we need input from people who have good knowledge of how these materials are transported to develop realistic scenarios. US: So, the calculation work will start after TRANSSC 41? TC: Yes, I think that the calculations can be done pretty quickly after we have agreed the scenarios. I expect that we will have new numbers by June 2021, at least preliminary numbers. It may be that the new numbers need refining over the Summer, so that by November 2021 [TRANSSC 43] we will have the final numbers or something very similar.
The whole purpose of the exemption group is ultimately to calculate new values for all naturally occurring radionuclides which will be less restrictive than the current ones. But that will not be the end of the work. For the new numbers to be included in an updated SSR-6 a proposal to change the actual wording of the regulation needs to be put forward to TRANSSC. These proposals must follow a fixed review cycle set by the IAEA and can be rather complex, but it is manageable.

US:
Is there anything else you'd like to mention about this project? TC: I believe that we have a good chance to get things done relatively quickly because the RP-TTEG is already in place and we can access the right expertise to do the calculations in a relatively short time. The key for T.I.C is to follow closely the IAEA approval process to make sure that the values are included in the regulations. For example I think that it will be very useful for T.I.C. to send a representative to the Technical Meetings that the IAEA would typically convene to review all the proposals for change, to clarify the intention of the proposal if necessary, so that the proposal doesn't get delayed unnecessarily.

RC:
Mr Cabianca, thank you very much for your time today. Please keep us informed and let us know if there is anything we can do to help the NORM exemption group in its work going forward.
The safe transport of NORM is essential to human life and health and the environment, and also to industry. Initiative) to provide resources and tools to help businesses obtain conflict-free minerals, notably through auditing smelters and refiners. With ITSCI and CFSI/RMI in place it became possible for a factory to purchase 3T materials, confident that any conflictrelated risks on the ground were being reported and managed.
In 2010 due diligence and mineral traceability were normalised by the first publication of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas ('Guidance') and passing of the US Dodd-Frank (Section 1502), which required US companies to "disclose annually whether any of those minerals originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or an adjoining country". The latter, de facto, giving the Guidance teeth.

ITSCI reaches maturity
Today central Africa provides legitimate and ethical 3T minerals from across four central African countries. Furthermore, ITSCI is the only industry initiative with standards 100% aligned with the OECD Guidance.
ITSCI's operational territory covers an area similar in size to Germany, the US state of California or China's Sichuan province, but with considerably more challenging logistics. And yet it works because it has the buy-in from the governments, businesses and communities who host it.
The OECD has assessed ITSCI and confirmed that it is 100% aligned with its Guidance.
ITSCI works inclusively with national and local governments and has clear roles for government officials. It has agreements with the governments of Burundi, the DRC, and Rwanda, as well as with the ICGLR. Its work is always carried out in partnership with governments and in co-operation with local partners as this contributes to better long term governance, stability and more opportunities for investment and growth.
ITSCI tracks 1.3 million business transactions a year and offers 3T miners a legitimate route to market. ITSCI enables mineral exports valued at around US$380 million per year, activity which not only provides jobs for thousands of miners, but also creates significant mine tax revenue for governments. ITSCI facilitated 3T exports are some of the most important foreign exchange earnings for Burundi and Rwanda.
The communities that host mines also play an important role. Many improvements in the field are brought about through a continuous incident reporting and mitigation process managed by the field teams who play a key role in facilitating incident resolution by local stakeholders directly via local Steering Committees. Financially, ITSCI is self-funded and not -for-profit. Levies on mineral production meet around 90% of annual expenses, with the balance largely from annual membership subscriptions.
The significant majority of annual expenses occur in-region, such as mine visits, training and incident investigations.
Running a lean and efficient program requires continuous mining to generate levy revenue, which normally is not an issue, especially in an expanding program, but then Covid-19 happened. ITSCI works closely with key regional partners. Here the ITSCI Governance Committee, Roland Chavasse (T.I.C.) and Kay Nimmo (ITA, right) meet with the Executive Secretary of the ICGLR, Ambassador Ambeyi Ligabo.
Community engagement and involvement is crucial to a successful traceability program (photo: Pact)

29
Covid-19 in central Africa: OECD issues call to action on 3T supply chains There can be no doubt that 2020 will be remembered for many years as the year Covid-19 disrupted the global economy. No countries or industries have avoided the disruption caused by attempts to contain and minimise the effects of this terrible pandemic. The supply chains for minerals, especially from the relatively labour intensive 3T mines in central Africa, are no exception and face many challenges.
The OECD recognizes this and has issued a Call to Action for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains.
In it the OECD states that it is "deeply concerned that gains made over the past 10 years in supply chain due diligence could be lost" and calls for immediate and concerted action "to safeguard gains related to due diligence in supply chains in alignment with the OECD [Guidance]". It goes on to discuss ASM 3T and gold mining, before adding that "responsible artisanal mining communities are vital -recovery will only work if we do not have to restart [traceability programs] from zero". The T.I.C. shares the OECD's concerns due to the importance of central African tantalum minerals. We are working closely with the OECD, RMI and other key stakeholders to help them to raise donor funding so that supply chain programs such as ITSCI can survive the current pandemic. While ITSCI continues to report risks in the supply chain under these circumstances, budget cuts have resulted in a decreased level of field effort -restricting the ability to work with stakeholders to resolve risks. Reduced level of effort by ITSCI teams will add to the due diligence burden on smelters. Further, unresolved issues threaten to increase reputational risks for downstream companies. Over 70 NGOs and civil society organisations have also raised the alarm.
An ITSCI-RMI campaign for financial support has been launched and both organisations are asking stakeholders and downstream industry that wish to support ITSCI's operations during this challenging time to pledge their support.
Over the last decade, ITSCI has provided vital information and support to smelters undergoing RMI RMAP audits and played a key role in reducing risk of conflict for the tantalum industry.
The risk that ITSCI does not continue post-Covid-19 would mean potentially wiping-out years of investment and progress in the social structure in Central Africa.
For further information about the RMI-ITSCI fundraising effort or to learn about the ways you can donate please visit http:// www.responsiblemineralsinitiative.org/about/rba-foundation-rmifunds/itsci/, thank you.
Distribution of ITSCI's Covid-19 leaflets (photo: Pact) ITSCI creates many positive impacts such as: • Improved governance and formalisation • Increased formal tax revenues • Fair international prices for minerals • Unique statistics on artisanal mining • Opportunities to address safety • Economic multiplier effects in the community ITSCI enables mineral exports which provide jobs for tens of thousands of miners (photo: Pact) molybdenum and niobium. Lower energy prices will also benefit those more energy-intensive, usually lower grade, mining operations.
• Supply chains and deglobalisation. The Covid-19 pandemic has accentuated tensions between countries and magnified what were already growing concerns over the vulnerability of the supply chains of many goods and services to disruptions. There are inevitable trade-offs between trying to minimise costs and relying on extended supply chains, but these pressures are driving trade towards a more federated and less global structure. In addition, we are seeing a trend towards increased traceability across all metals, not just 3TG. Upstream and downstream integration is also more likely. Separately, governments and government agencies -including the US Department of Defense and the European Commission -are increasingly looking at how they can support the development and supply of critical raw materials such as tantalum and niobium.

•
Operational resilience. As a consequence of increased supply chain risks, firms may decide they need to build more redundancy into their operating assets. For mining assets that may involve higher levels of inventories and spares, a greater use of automation, procurement through a wider range of suppliers, increased biosecurity controls and increased ownership or direct control of logistics networks. This will inevitably have consequences for costs and prices.

•
Lower interest rates and industry cost of capital. Survey data suggest that mining companies in general are investing on the basis of a real industry cost of capital of around 8%, and often apply hurdle rates well above this level. This assumes a historical real rate of interest of around 2% and an industry "beta" that is well above other parts of the economy. Both of these assumptions may no longer hold given; US long 10-year government bond yields are negative and since 2015 the mining index has followed global equities. The valuation of mining assets is highly geared to its cost of capital and lowering the rate of return would significantly increase the value of mining assets.

•
Taxation and political risk. A counterweight to a lower cost of capital may be higher taxation of the mining sector as governments look to raise revenues to close fiscal deficits and repay debts incurred as a result of Covid-19. Mining assets often prove to be a tempting target for such taxes due to their fixed geographical nature. At the extreme this can result in the full nationalisation of assets. Heightened risk of this, and also the supply chain risks already discussed, mean that country risk premia may increase in some jurisdictions. More investment in the mining sector as a result may move back to more perceived stable counties. This may benefit, for example, the development of nickel and lithium projects in Australia over other investments.

Conclusions
The effects of the Covid-19 crisis are leading to a multi-decade record contraction in global GDP. Industrial production is also being severely impacted, but it is likely to hold up better relative to GDP than in previous downturns. Changes are, so far, more comparable in scale to the 2008-9 global financial crisis (GFC). Although it depends somewhat on being able to control the Covid-19 virus, as a counterpart to the sharp decline in GDP and industrial production, Roskill expects the recovery to be much sharper and more "V-shaped" than in previous downturns such as the GFC. Whilst there is general pessimism about the economic outlook, Roskill is still optimistic that demand for most metals will eventually recover back to pre-Covid-19 levels. That recovery will likely be quicker for those materials which are more China-centric.
Compared to its state in 2008, the mining sector today is also structurally much better positioned to weather the current crisis and the resilience of metals prices and mining equities to the downturn has, so far, been remarkable. Roskill's index of all metals prices remains 25% above its previous cyclical lows and it is only modestly down for the year-to-date. This resilience partly reflects falls in price that had already taken place in 2019 and as supply adjustments in several markets have offset the effects of lower demand. There may, though, be some general price weakness in the next two quarters as supply disruptions are resolved and as some later inventory destocking is possible.
Roskill's views on the fundamentals of the metals markets it covers have not fundamentally changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The current crisis has, though, exposed the vulnerability of some supply chains and accelerated risks of deglobalisation. For the mining sector this highlights the need to improve operational resilience. Increased traceability, and more preferred access or partnership arrangements, along with changes in the cost of capital, energy input prices and political risk, may push up industry margins and shift the location of growth in metals supply back more towards developed regions.