Word: tantalum
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Tourists on Thailand's idyllic Phuket Island, where more than 300,000 visitors annually enjoy palm-lined beaches and seaside restaurants, were hard put last week to find much serenity. The peace was shattered by some 50,000 rampaging residents, angry at the projected opening of a tantalum factory near downtown Phuket. Protesters feared that pollutants from the refining of tantalum, a tin by-product used in the production of electronic equipment, might poison both the island's water supply and its blossoming tourist trade...
During the six-month austral, or southern, summer, when the South Pole is bathed in sunlight 24 hours a day, geologists from the U.S., Australia and New Zealand explored the rocky mountains of Northern Victoria Land. They found signs of such valuable metals as tantalum and lithium, used for making high-strength alloys. The Dufek Massif in the Pensacola Mountains, similar to South Africa's Bushveld, may have platinum and chromium, both strategic metals...