molybdenum processing

Introduction

      preparation of the ore for use in various products.

      Molybdenum (Mo) is a white, platinum-like metal with a melting point of 2,610° C (4,730° F). In its pure state, it is tough and ductile and is characterized by moderate hardness, high thermal conductivity, high resistance to corrosion, and a low expansion coefficient. When alloyed with other metals, molybdenum promotes hardenability and toughness, augments tensile strength and creep resistance, and generally promotes uniform hardness. Small quantities of molybdenum (of 1 percent or less) significantly improve the abrasion resistance, anticorrosive properties, and high-temperature strength and toughness of the matrix material. Molybdenum is therefore a vital addition agent in the manufacture of steels and highly sophisticated nonferrous superalloys.

      Since the molybdenum atom has the same character as that of tungsten but only about half its atomic weight and density, it advantageously replaces tungsten in alloy steels, allowing the same metallurgical effect to be achieved with half as much metal. In addition, two of its outer electron rings are incomplete; this allows it to form chemical compounds where the metal is di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-, or hexa-valent, making possible a wide variety of molybdenum chemical products. This also is the essential factor in its considerable catalytic properties.

History

      Although the metal was known to ancient cultures, and its mineral forms were confused with graphite and the lead ore galena for at least 2,000 years, molybdenum was not formally discovered and identified until 1778, when the Swedish chemist and pharmacist Carl Wilhelm Scheele produced molybdic oxide by attacking pulverized molybdenite (MoS₂) with concentrated nitric acid and then evaporating the residue to dryness. Following Scheele's suggestion, another Swedish chemist, Peter Jacob Hjelm, produced the first metallic molybdenum in 1781 by heating a paste prepared from molybdic oxide and linseed oil at high temperatures in a crucible. During the 19th century, the German chemist Bucholtz and the Swede Jöns Jacob Berzelius systematically explored the complex chemistry of molybdenum, but it was not until 1895 that a French chemist, Henri Moissan, produced the first chemically pure (99.98 percent) molybdenum metal by reducing it with carbon in an electric furnace, thereby making it possible to conduct scientific and metallurgical research into the metal and its alloys.

      In 1894 a French arms manufacturer, Schneider SA, introduced molybdenum into armour plating at its works in Le Creusot. In 1900 two American engineers, F.W. Taylor and P. White, presented the first molybdenum-based high-speed steels at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Simultaneously, Marie Curie in France and J.A. Mathews in the United States used molybdenum to prepare permanent magnets. But it was not until acute shortages of tungsten were provoked by World War I that molybdenum was used on a massive scale to make arms, armour plating, and other military hardware. In the 1920s, molybdenum-bearing alloys had their first peacetime applications, initially in automobile manufacture and then in stainless steels. In the following decade they gained acceptance in high-speed steels, and after World War II they were used in aviation—particularly in jet engines, which had to withstand high operating temperatures. Later, their use expanded to missiles. Apart from alloy steels, molybdenum is used in superalloys, chemicals, catalysts, and lubricants.

Ores

      The only commercially viable mineral in the production of molybdenum is its bisulfide (MoS₂), found in molybdenite. Almost all ores are recovered from porphyry-disseminated deposits in Colorado, Arizona, British Columbia, Chile, Peru, Russia, and Kazakhstan. These are either primary molybdenum deposits or complex copper-molybdenum deposits from which molybdenum is recovered as a coproduct or byproduct. Primary deposits, containing between 0.1 and 0.5 percent molybdenum, are extensive. Copper porphyries also are very large deposits, but their molybdenum content varies between 0.005 and 0.05 percent. Roughly 40 percent of molybdenum comes from primary mines, with the other 60 percent a by-product of copper (or, in some cases, tungsten).

      Some 64 percent of recoverable resources are found in North America, with the United States accounting for two-thirds of them. Another 25 percent are in South America, and the balance is found principally in Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Iran, and the Philippines. Europe, Africa, and Australia are very poor in molybdenum ores.

mining and concentrating

      Molybdenum and copper-molybdenum porphyries are mined by open-pit or by underground methods. Once the ore has been crushed and ground, the metallic minerals are then separated from gangue minerals (or the molybdenum and copper from each other) by flotation processes, using a wide variety of reagents. The concentrates contain between 85 and 92 percent MoS₂ and small amounts of copper (less than 0.5 percent) if the molybdenum is recovered as a by-product of copper.

Extraction and refining

Technical molybdic oxide

      About 97 percent of MoS₂ must be converted into technical molybdic oxide (85–90 percent MoO₃) in order to reach its commercial destination. Such conversion is almost universally carried out in Nichols-Herreshoff-type multiple-hearth furnaces, into which molybdenite concentrate is fed from the top against a current of heated air and gases blown from the bottom. Each hearth has four air-cooled arms rotated by an air-cooled shaft; the arms are equipped with rabble blades that rake material to the outside or centre of the roaster, where the material drops to the next hearth. In the first hearth, the concentrate is preheated and the flotation reagents ignite, initiating the transformation of MoS₂ into MoO₃. This exothermic reaction, which continues and intensifies in the following hearths, is controlled by adjustment of the oxygen and by water sprays that cool the furnace when necessary. The temperature should not rise above 650° C (1,200° F), the point at which MoO₃ sublimates, or vaporizes directly from the solid state. The process is finished when the sulfur content of the calcines falls below 0.1 percent.

Chemically pure molybdic oxide

      Technical molybdic oxide is made into briquettes that are fed directly into furnaces to make alloy steels and other foundry products. They also are used to make ferromolybdenum (see below), but if more purified molybdenum products are desired, such as molybdenum chemicals or metallic molybdenum, then technical MoO₃ must be refined to chemically pure MoO₃ by sublimation. This is carried out in electric retorts at temperatures between 1,200° and 1,250° C (2,200° and 2,300° F). The furnaces consist of quartz tubes wound with molybdenum-wire heating elements, which are protected from oxidation by a mixture of refractory-brick paste and wood charcoal. The tubes are inclined 20° from the horizontal and rotated. The sublimed vapours are swept from the tubes by air and collected by hoods leading to filter bags. Two separate fractions are collected. The first corresponds to vaporization of the initial 2–3 percent of the charge and contains most of the volatile impurities. The last fraction is the pure MoO₃. This must be 99.95 percent pure in order to be suitable for the manufacture of ammonium molybdate (ADM) and sodium molybdate, which are starting materials for all sorts of molybdenum chemicals. These compounds are obtained by reacting chemically pure MoO₃ with aqueous ammonia or sodium hydroxide. Ammonium molybdate, in the form of white crystals, assays 81 to 83 percent MoO₃, or 54 to 55 percent molybdenum. It is soluble in water and is used for the preparation of molybdenum chemicals and catalysts as well as metallic molybdenum powder.

Molybdenum metal

      The production of metallic molybdenum from pure MoO₃ or ADM is carried out in electrically heated tubes or muffle furnaces, into which hydrogen gas is introduced as a countercurrent against the feed. Usually there are two stages in which the MoO₃ or ADM is first reduced to a dioxide and then to a metal powder. The two stages may be carried out in two different furnaces with cooling in between, or a two-zone furnace can be employed. (Sometimes, a three-stage process is utilized beginning at a low temperature of 400° C, or 750° F, to avoid an uncontrolled reaction and prevent sintering.) In the two-stage process, two long-muffle furnaces with molybdenum-wire heating elements can be used. The first reduction is carried out in mild-steel “boats” holding 5 to 7 kilograms (10 to 15 pounds) of oxide, which are fed at intervals of 30 minutes. The temperature of the furnace is 600°–700° C (1,100°–1,300° F). The product from the first furnace is broken up and fed at the same rate in nickel boats to a second furnace operating at 1,000°–1,100° C (1,800°–2,000° F), after which the metal powder is screened. The purest powder, containing 99.95 percent molybdenum, is obtained by reduction of ADM.

      Because of its extremely high melting point, molybdenum cannot be melted into ingots of high quality by conventional processes. It can, however, easily be melted in an electric arc. In one such process, developed by Parke and Ham, molybdenum powder is continuously pressed into a rod, which is partially sintered by electric resistance and melted at the end in an electric arc. The molten molybdenum is deoxidized by carbon added to the powder, and it is cast in a water-cooled, copper mold.

Ferromolybdenum

      Technical molybdic oxide is the least expensive agent for adding molybdenum to alloy steels and irons, but for higher-grade alloy steels, in which the molybdenum content is more than 1 percent, ferromolybdenum (FeMo) is preferred since it avoids having to add oxygen to the heat.

      Ferromolybdenum can be produced by either a metallothermic process or a carbon-reduction process in electric furnaces. Because the latter process has the inherent disadvantage of introducing a high carbon content into the FeMo alloy, the thermic process, in which aluminum and silicon metals are used for the reduction of a charge consisting of a mixture of technical molybdic oxide and iron oxide, is practically the only manufacturing method used. Reduction takes place in a furnace consisting of a bottomless, brick-lined steel shell or ring, approximately 180 centimetres (6 feet) in diameter and 50 centimetres (18 inches) high, that is placed on a sand bed in a mold box. After the charge is fed into the pot and leveled, a dust hood is set in place and the reaction started by ignition with a starting fuse (usually a mixture of powdered aluminum, magnesium, iron oxide, and potassium nitrate). The reduction reaction lasts between 2 and 20 minutes, during which time most of the fumes produced are drawn from the hood to a dust-collecting train. After the reaction is completed, the metal and slag are allowed to cool and solidify for 4 to 16 hours, depending on the size of the heat and the melting practice. The solidified metal and slag block is then removed from the mold and quenched in water; this cools the metal, facilitates the separation of metal and slag in two blocks, and produces fine fractures in the metal that make it easy to break into pieces. The FeMo cake is hammered into 20-centimetre chunks and then crushed and screened to sizes of 2.5, 1.9, and 1.6 centimetres. Specifications for FeMo call for a minimum of 60 percent molybdenum, between 2 and 2.5 percent carbon, and 1 percent or less copper, phosphorus, silicon, and sulfur, and the rest iron.

The metal and its alloys

      Ferromolybdenum accounts for about one-third of the total molybdenum consumption. Molybdenum in its pure metallic form has relatively few applications (only 6 percent of total use), principally in filaments, lamp hooks, thermovalves, glass making, vacuum furnaces, and rocket nozzles.

Iron and steel

      The largest practical applications are in ferrous alloys, such as full alloy and constructional steels with a molybdenum content varying between 0.15 and 0.4 percent. Such steels are used for load-bearing parts, machine tools and equipment, and military hardware, as well as in oil refinery tubing, rotary mining drills, and cars, trucks, locomotives, and ships. Another major group of applications is stainless and heat-resisting steels in which the molybdenum content ranges between 0.4 and 3 percent.These steels, which also contain chromium and nickel, are used in heat exchangers, turbine tubing, power generators, synfuel and chemical plants, oil-refining processes, pumps, ship propellers, acid storage, and plastics manufacturing. Tool steels, which contain between 5 and 8.75 percent molybdenum, are employed in high-speed machining, cold-work tools, drill bits, chisels, screwdrivers, and dies. Gray cast irons with 0.15 to 1.25 percent molybdenum are used for heavy castings, cylinder blocks, piston rings, ball and rolling mills, rolls, and drills.

Superalloys

      Nonferrous alloys categorized under the name superalloys or nimonics account for about 3 percent of the total demand for molybdenum. They are used in jet engines, nuclear plants, gas turbines, space exploration, and general aviation.

Chemical compounds

      About 11 percent of molybdenum demand is for chemicals, such as a sulfide-purified concentrate for producing lubricants with 99 percent MoS₂ that permits lubrication at very high temperatures. Among other chemicals are molybdenum orange (used in printing) and numerous catalysts. There are also numerous pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, fire retardants, and other products fabricated on a molybdenum base.

Alexander Sutulov

Additional Reading

Comprehensive and up-to-date information on many aspects of metallurgy, individual metals, and alloys can be found in convenient reference-form arrangement in the following works: Metals Handbook, 9th ed., 17 vol. (1978–89), a massive and detailed source prepared under the direction of the American Society for Metals, with a 10th edition that began publication in 1990; Herman F. Mark et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, 3rd ed., 31 vol. (1978–84), formerly known as Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, with a 4th edition begun in 1991; and its European counterpart, the first English-language edition of a monumental German work, Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 5th, completely rev. ed., edited by Wolfgang Gerhartz et al. (1985– ). Ed.Alexander Sutulov (ed.), International Molybdenum Encyclopaedia, 1778–1978, 3 vol. (1978–80), presents wide-ranging reference information on all aspects, from resources through production and trade; its supplemental vol. 4 has been published as Intermet Molybdenum Yearbook (1982) and contains later information on events and developments in the industry, with statistics. A convenient single source of reference information on all the refractory metals is Clifford A. Hampel, Rare Metals Handbook, 2nd ed. (1961, reprinted 1971).Chun Tsin Wang Alexander Sutulov

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