Minerals Containing Tantalum

TANTALITE (Iron Manganese Tantalum Niobium Oxide)
COLUMBITE (Iron Magnesium Manganese Niobium Tantalum Oxide)

Tantalum is placed as the 53rd out of 103 elements with respect to its abundance in the Earth's crust, at 1.7 parts per million (grams per metric tonne). Only 82 of these elements occur in appreciable amounts- 10 can be detected only as random traces, and 11 are not detectable in nature.