A process to produce tantalum and niobium powder continuously is proposed and
its applicability is examined experimentally. The method is based on the
chemical reaction with a molten magnesium and TaCl5 or NbCl5 gas. The
solid TaCl5 is injected into the molten salt in which a molten magnesium is
saturated as the reductant. Bubbles of gaseous TaCl5 were spread out in the
salt and reacted with Mg. When TaCl5 gas reacted directly with the liquid Mg
layer, the spherical Ta particles with a sub-micron size were well separated
from Mg and could be recovered from the bottom of the molten salts. When
TaCl5 dissolved into the salt as cation, a needle-like crystals of Ta were
preferentially precipitated.