Mexico, elements

In addition to domestic production of Frasch and recovered elemental sulfur, U.S. requirements for sulfur are met with by-product sulfuric acid from copper, lead, molybdenum, and zinc smelting operations as well as imports from Canada and Mexico. By-product sulfur is also recovered as sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide (see Sulfurremoval and recovery). 

Vanadium was first discovered in 1801 by del Rio while he was examining a lead ore obtained from Zimapan, Mexico. The ore contained a new element and, because of the red color imparted to its salts on heating, it was named erythronium (redness). The identification of the element vanadium did not occur until 1830 when it was isolated from cast iron processed from an ore from mines near Taberg, Sweden. It was given the name vanadium after Vanadis, the Norse goddess of beauty. Shordy after this discovery, vanadium was shown to be identical to the erythronium that del Rio had found several years eadier. 

W orld annual production of bismuth and its compounds has hovered around 4000 tonnes of contained Bi for many years and a similar amount of secondary (refinery) Bi is also produced. Production has been dominated by China, Japan, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, Canada, USA and Australia which, between them, account for almost of all supplies. Prices tor die free element have fluctuated wildly since the 1970s, from < 4 (Xl/kg to > 44.00/kg at die end of 1990 it was 6.30/kg Consumption of the metal and its compounds has also been unusual, usage in the USA dropping by a factor of 2 from 1973 to 1975, for example. The mam uses are in pharmaceuticals, fusible alloys (including type metal, p. 547), and metallurgical additives. 

IAEA/AL/095 (1996) Report of the 2nd Research Co-ordination Meeting on Reference Materials for Micro-Analytical Nuclear Techniques . 30.05.-5.06.1996, Mexico, MEXICO. IAEA-TECDOC-825 (1995) Reference and intercomparison materials for stable isotopes of light elements. IAEA, Vienna. 

Storm, E., Gilbert, E., Israel, H. In Gamma-Ray Absorption Coefficients for Elements 1 Through 100, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-2237. University of California, New Mexico (1958)... 

ABSTRACT A geochemical analysis of major, trace and rare earth elements was carried out in beach sands collected from the Northeastern coast of Mexico in order to observe the spatial trends along three different beaches. Results show that major elements patterns along the beaches are controlled by heavy minerals and plutonic and sedimentary input towards the coast. In addition, trace elements tendencies indicate that the beach sands are influenced by the presence of magnetite. Finally, the differences in Eu anomalies indicate a mix of felsic to mafic and intermediate rocks and feldspar weathering. 

Fig. 3. Spatial trends of major elements at beach and dune sands from the northeastern coast of Mexico,...

Kasper-Zubillaga, J.J., Acevedo-Vargas, B., Morton-Bermea, O., Ortiz-Zamora, G., 2008a, Rare earth elements of the Altar Desert dune and coastal sands, Northwestern Mexico. Chemie Der Erde Geochemistry, 68, 45-69. 

Kasper-Zubillaga, J.J., Carranza-Edwards, A., Morton-Bermea, O. 2008b.Heavy minerals and rare earth elements in coastal and inland dunes of El Vizcaino Desert Baja Califonia Peninsula, Mexico. Marine Georesources and Geotechnology, 26, 172-188. 

Teatum, E.T., Gschneidner Jr., K.A., and Waber, J.T. (1968) Compilation of Calculated Data Useful in Predicting Metallurgical Behavior of the Elements in Binary Alloy Systems, Report LA-4003, UC-25, Metals, Ceramics and Materials, TID-4500 (Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, New Mexico, USA). 

Brown and coworkers (17-18,47) reported compositions of dusts from cotton compresses and warehouses. Samples were removed with the aid of a sonic bath in hexane. The compresses were in Mississippi, Southeastern and Western Texas, and New Mexico. The samples in the bale press area were high in ash content with silicon the most abundant element (up to 18.7% in one New Mexico compress Scimple). Compared with card room dusts, samples from compresses were high in aluminum, silicon, chlorine, iron and magnesium and relatively low in potassium, phosphorus and zinc. The ratio of silica to silicon was high also for these scunples compared with textile mill dusts. 

Einsteinium - the atomic number is 99 and the chemical symbol is Es. The name derives from Albert Einstein , the German bom physicist who proposed the theory of relativity. A collaboration of American scientists from the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, Illinois, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico and at the University of California lab in Berkeley, California first found Es in the debris of thermonuclear weapons in 1952. The longest half-life associated with this unstable element is 472 day Es. 

Potassium is the eighth most abundant element in the Earths crust, which contains about 2.6% potassium, but not in natural elemental form. Potassium is slightly less abundant than sodium. It is found in almost all solids on Earth, in soil, and in seawater, which contains 380 ppm of potassium in solution. Some of the potassium ores are sylvite, carnallite, and polyha-lite. Ore deposits are found in New Mexico, California, Salt Lake in Utah, Germany, Russia, and Israel. Potassium metal is produced commercially by two processes. One is thermochemical distillation, which uses hot vapors of gaseous NaCl (sodium chloride) and KCl (potassium chloride) the potassium is cooled and drained off as molten potassium, and the sodium chloride is discharged as a slag. The other procedure is an electrolytic process similar to that used to produce hthium and sodium, with the exception that molten potassium chloride (which melts at about 770°C) is used to produce potassium metal at the cathode (see figure 4.1). 

Strontium metal is not found in its elemental state in nature. Its salts and oxide compounds constitute only 0.025% of the Earths crust. Strontium is found in Mexico and Spain in the mineral ores of strontianite (SrCO ) and celestite (SrSO ). As these ores are treated with hydrochloric acid (HCl), they produce strontium chloride (SrCy that is then used, along with potassium chloride (KCl), to form a eutectic mixture to reduce the melting point of the SrCl, as a molten electrolyte in a graphite dish-shaped electrolysis apparatus. This process produces Sr cations collected at the cathode, where they acquire electrons to form strontium metal. At the same time, Cl anions give up electrons at the anode and are released as chlorine gas Cl T. 

Barium is the 17th most abundant element in the Earth s crust, making up about 0.05% of the crust. It is found in the minerals witherite, which is barium carbonate (BaCO ), and barite, known as barium siflfate (BaSO ). Pure barium metal does not exist on Earth—only as compounds or in minerals and ores. Barium ores are found in Missouri, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Nevada, California, Canada, and Mexico. 

Radium is the 85th most abundant element found in the Earths crust. Radium is found in the uranium ores pitchblende and chalcolite, which are both very radioactive. Radium metal exists to the extent of only one part to every three million parts of the uranium ore (pitchblende). Only about one gram of radium is found in every seven or eight tons of uranium ore. This scarcity seems to be the reason that only about five pounds of uranium are produced each year in the entire world. Uranium ores are found in the states of Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado in the United States and in Canada, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Zaire, and France. 

Molybdenum is the 54th most abundant element on Earth. It is relatively rare and is found in just 126 ppm in the Earth s crust. Its major ore is molybdenite (MoS ), which is mined in Colorado in the United States and is found too in Canada, Chile, China, England, Norway, Sweden, Mexico, and Australia. Moldybdenum is also found in two less important ores wul-fenite (PbMoO ) and powellite ([Ca(MoW)0 ]. These ores are usually found in the same sites along with tin and tungsten ores. 

Lead is the 35th most abundant element on Earth. Although it has been found in its free elemental metal state, it is usually obtained from a combination of the following ores galena (PbS), anglesite (PbSO ), cerussite (PbCOj), and minum (Pb O ). Lead ores are located in Europe (Germany, Rumania, and France), Africa, Australia, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, and Canada. The largest deposits of lead in the United States are in the states of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Montana. 

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