Playfair Mining Ltd. - About Tungsten

Wolframite in quartz

What is Tungsten?

Tungsten (symbol W) is an extremely hard, heavy, steel-gray to white metal that is one of the heaviest of all the elements, remarkable for its robust physical properties and vast uses. In its purest form it is quite pliant and can easily be processed. With high binding energy, tungsten alloys and some tungsten compounds cannot be substituted in many important applications in different fields of modern technology.

Commercial Uses

Tungsten has a wide range of uses, the largest of which is as tungsten carbide, a wear-resistant material used by the metalworking, mining, petroleum, military construction and jewelry industries. Tungsten is widely used in light bulb and vacuum tube filaments, as well as electrodes, as it can be drawn into very thin metal wires that have a high melting point, similar to the temperature of the sun.

MTUs

A Metric Tonne Unit ("MTU") is equal to ten kilograms per metric tonne and is the standard weight measure of the tungsten trade. Tungsten prices are generally quoted as US dollars per MTU of Ammonium Paratungstate ("APT") an intermediate product in the production of tungsten metal for which price quotes are generally available. Tungsten prices have surged in the past two years from US$60 to the current level of US$260 per MTU of APT.

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Wolframite

Chemical formula: (Fe, Mn) WO4
Wolframite is a black to grey or brown primary ore of tungsten, with a submetallic to resinous lustre. Wolframite is named after the German word wolfram which means "tungsten." Wolfram is derived from volf (wolf) and rahm (froth) which, in turn, was derived from an earlier name Lupi spuma.

Scheelite

Chemical formula: CaWO4
Scheelite is an important tungsten ore. Its colours range through white, yellow, orange or greenish grey to brown, with an adamantine to greasy lustre. Crystals are transparent to translucent. Scheelite is named for the discoverer of tungsten, K. W. Scheele. Although most of the world wide production of tungsten comes from the mineral wolframite, scheelite is especially abundant in the US and provides the United States with most of its supply. Many prospectors for scheelite have made good use of scheelite's typically bright blue fluorescence by searching for scheelite deposits by night with ultraviolet lamps. Many old mines have even been reopened after examination of the mine shafts with ultraviolet lamps have proven that the ore is not quite yet exhausted.

Go to www.itia.org.uk for more information on tungsten.

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