[baybal2]

Cobalt and tantalum are truly the Achilles heel of industrial economies.

No cobalt - no lithium batteries, and no mobile gadgets

No tantalum - no high spec capacitors omnipresent in compact power supplies, thus again no high value electronics as such unless you want to put huge electrolytic caps into your smartphone.

[LeifCarrotson]

Tantalum capacitors have largely been replaced by ceramics in the last decade. Also, improvements in transistor tech and subsequently in switching power supply design mean you no longer need massive amounts of capacitance (nor a giant hand-wound toroidal transformer) for stable voltage output - you get a much more compact (and also higher-efficiency) power supply with a <100 uF high-performance ceramic and 0.2 uH chip inductor.

For example, compare this ancient LT app note [1] with this modern datasheet [2]. The former recommends 450 uH wirewound inductors (see especially the humorous page 22, which recommends selecting one with an appropriate weight of less than 0.25 pounds) and 1000 uF solid tantalum monster capacitors. The latter recommends a 10 uF 0402 ceramic capacitors and 4.7 uH 0805 chip inductors.

[xxs]

yeah - agree... and look at the tools industry where most hand-held tools are battery powered nowadays (incl. angle grinders)

Most people are willing to close their eyes as the issue is far away from home