Annual tungsten

Until 1977, one can state that supply and demand dictated the price of tungsten. However, from then on the price control mechanism was no longer effective. Although annual tungsten consumption within the period from 1977 to 1989 increased fiirflier from <40,0001 W to 52,0001 W, the price fell continuously. Several circumstances were responsible for the new situation. 

The WC leaving the furnace is light gray with a bluish tinge. It is generally caked and must be broken up, milled, and screened before use. It should contain about 6.1—6.25 wt % total C, of which 0.03—0.15 wt % is in the free, unbound state. The theoretical C-content is 6.13 wt %. Annual world production of tungsten monocarbide is 15,000—18,000 metric tons. 

The raw materials needed to supply about ten million new automobiles a year do not impose a difficult problem except in the case of the noble metals. Present technology indicates that each car may need up to ten pounds of pellets, two pounds of monoliths, or two pounds of metal alloys. The refractory oxide support materials are usually a mixture of silica, alumina, magnesia, lithium oxide, and zirconium oxide. Fifty thousand tons of such materials a year do not raise serious problems (47). The base metal oxides requirement per car may be 0.1 to 1 lb per car, or up to five thousand tons a year. The current U.S. annual consumption of copper, manganese, and chromium is above a million tons per year, and the consumption of nickel and tungsten above a hundred thousand tons per year. The only important metals used at the low rate of five thousand tons per year are cobalt, vanadium, and the rare earths. 

Mineral Industries Surveys, Tungsten Annual Review, U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Mines, Washington, D.C., 1994. 

The term rarer elements as originally employed in the sense of their comparative rare occurrence and limited availability must now, in a number of cases, be regarded as a misnomer. Large quantities of some of these elements are utilized annually, and the range of their application is slowly but surely widening. A few examples may be mentioned the use of molybdenum, tungsten, titanium, and beryllium in the steel industry, of tungsten in the manufacture of incandescent lamps, and of titanium and uranium in the paint industry. The interpretation of the term rarer elements, as applied to the elements described in this chapter, is perhaps best accepted in the sense of their comparatively rare occurrence in routine qualitative analysis. 

Yoshiki Doi, Characteristics and Application of High Purity Tungsten and Chemical Vapor Deposited Tungstein, paper presented at the Annual ITIA Meeting, Huntsville, USA transcript of papers ITIA, London (1994). 

R. M. Bunting, Tungsten Market Studies, in ITIA Annual General Meetings, Huntsville, Al, USA... 

The most important bulk material is tungsten carbide sintered with a metallic binder which is usually cobalt. It is known as cemented carbide or hard metal (see Ch. 6, Sec. 8.0). Many combinations of carbides and binders are possible and it is estimated that 20,000 tons of these materials are produced annually throughout the world. An unusual and beneficial feature of WC is that it maintains its high hardness value at high temperature (see Ch. 6, Sec. 8.0)... 

High-purity scandium oxide (i.e., 99.0 to 99.99 wt.% Sc) is an initial raw material used to produce a metallic scandium. After fluorination of the oxide, pure scandium is then prepared by calciothermic reduction of scandium trifluoride (ScFj) with pure calcium metal. The metallic scandium obtained undergoes subsequent refining by vacuum distillation, which ensures a purity of metal at the level 99.99 to 99.999 wt.% Sc. Tentative annual demand for ultrapure metallic scandium for different fields of application is estimated for the near future at 800 to 1000 kg per year. Total annual world production in 2000 of scandium, excluding China, was about 30 kg. Union Carbide and Johnson Matthey, as well as the research company Boulder, are the main manufacturers of scandium products from thortveitite, wastes of uranium, and tungsten production. 

Gelikbilek, M., Ersundu, A.E., Solak, N. Aydin, S. (2010). Kinetic studies on the tungsten tellurite glasses, ACerS 112th Annual Meeting combined with Materials Science Technology 2010 Conference Exhibition, Houston, Texas, U.S.A., October 2010... 

Whitelocke, S. A. and Kalu, E. E. 2008. Catalytic activity and stabihty of tungsten oxide electrocatalyst for fuel cell apphcations. AIChE Annual Meeting Conference Proceedings, Philadelphia, PA, Nov. 16-21,2008 117/1-/8. 

---