On 30 September, Global Advanced Metals (GAM) announced that it was awarded an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) sole-sourced contract from the US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Strategic Materials (the head of the National Defense Stockpile).

Under the terms of the agreement, GAM will be on-call to supply tantalum ingots from its Boyertown facility, up to a total value of US$100M over the next five-year period. GAM also operates a manufacturing facility in Aizu, Japan.

The contract follows a decision made in August 2022, when the US Department of Defense, now the Department of War (DoW), implemented a ban on acquiring tantalum metals and alloys from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. The ban, outlined in the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation (DFARS), directly prevents the use of tantalum metals and alloys from the four mentioned countries in military projects.

GAM has previously supplied the DLA with tantalum products. Most notably, GAM owns the rights to tantalum units at the Greenbushes and Wodgina hard rock lithium mines in Australia. From these locations, GAM is able to source tantalum units mostly free of ESG concerns.

These locations prove to be quite advantageous, as the tantalum concentrates sourced from Greenbushes benefit from reduced costs as a by-product of lithium mining. Additionally, since 2010, GAM has been compliant with Section 1502 of the US Dodd-Frank Act. Tantalum units produced from Greenbushes are shipped to the USA (and Japan), where they are further refined into tantalum products.

Regardless, GAM, with its (almost) integrated supply chain, remains one of the key primary sources of tantalum in the USA. Whilst the IDIQ may not specifically state exact deliverables, it signals the USA’s intent of retaining independent supply chains and reducing dependencies.