TUNGSTEN
It’s harder than anything but diamond, and it’s boiling point is a whopping 10220.0 °F. That's about 220° hotter than the surface of the sun. Both lead and steel float on mercury, which is only about seventy percent as dense as Tungsten.
An essential resource to the industrialized world, and absolutely necessary in trades such as mining and oil drilling, Tungsten is also used in some of the worlds finest precision cutting tools and medical instruments, and it is still the only material used in light-bulb filaments.
Thanks to its outstanding density, unparalleled hardness and the increasing need for metals with these properties, tungsten is used in hundreds of new products every year. We may not know what every one of those products is, but we do know that when they break or wear out, we recycle them.
RHENIUM
Rhenium actually is rocket-science. Otto Berg along with the husband and wife team of Ida Tacke and Walter Noddack are credited with the element’s discovery in 1925, making it the last naturally occurring stable element to be discovered. Just a few short years later the team managed to extract 1 g from mere 660 kg of molybdenite. Proving, I suppose, that hard work really does pay off.
Rhenium coatings are used extensively on the outside of chemical rocket engines to help keep the walls cool and minimize thermal soakback. Rhenium is also used in jet engine construction, combustion chambers, thermocouple sheaths, hot-gas-path components, crucibles for crystal growing, and many more of the coolest sounding things in the industrialised world!
Because of its low availability relative to its increasing demand, rhenium is among the most expensive industrial metals. In 1928 it sold for $10,000/g. It’s gone down some since, but rest assured, you’ll always get a fair price on it with us.
NONFERROUS METAL AND ALLOY SCRAP TRADING
We also trade in most grades of non-ferrous metals including secondary aluminium swarf, borings, ingots, and scrap in most forms.
TANTALUM / MOLYBDENUM / NIOBIUM
Refractory metals such as these have the highest melting points on the periodic table, and as a result maintain excellent mechanical properties at extreme temperatures. Swedish chemist and tireless lover Anders Gustaf Ekenberg, discovered tantalum 1802. Almost completely resistant to chemical attack, tantalum also does not irritate or react with the body in any way, making it ideal for surgical sutures and implants, like artificial joints or cranial plates.
Molybdenum is required by the body in trace amounts, and one of the best sources is kidney beans, leading many to view Molybdenum as one of natures most chili friendly elements. Molybdenum products are also commonly used in glass melting as well as the aerospace, solar, nuclear, electronics, automotive, and medical industries. Molybdenum is also a fundamental building block for the high-strength, high-temperature alloy TZM.
While Niobium is considered the least refractory of the refractory metals, due to it’s relative low cost and ready availability it still serves many important functions throughout the industrialized world, including high temperature crystal-growth crucibles and a superconducting niobium- titanium alloy.
MINOR METALS: INDIUM, HAFNIUM, ZIRCONIUM, GERMANIUM, GALLIUM, AND RUTHENIUM
These are the weirdos. Why? When finely divided hafnium becomes pyrophoric and can ignite spontaneously in air -- which can be a pain. Indium emits a high pitched, ‘cry’ when bent -- which can be scary. Ruthenium oxidizes explosively, is highly toxic and may cause explosions if allowed to come into contact with combustible materials. It also strongly stains human skin.
So why are we interested in these weirdos. Well, for one thing Ruthenium has shown tremendous promise along several avenues of cancer research, and each of these rare elements contributes something to the industrial world in the form of reactor control rods, conducting glues, space vehicle parts, thousands of electronic applications and even treating poison-ivy.
HIGH SPEED / TOOL STEEL
Our long-standing relationship with Tungsten and Molybdenum, both components of HSS, leads naturally to the family of Tool-Steels. These are alloys that are primarily used to make the tools used in manufacturing processes that need to withstand high specific loads and stay stable at elevated temperatures. High-speed tool steels can maintain their hardness and integrity in temperatures exceeding 1000°F. End mills, drills, lathe tools, planar tools, punches, reamers, routers, taps, saws, broaches, chasers, hobs, and many other things that move really fast and get really hot are in the happy HSS family.
PRECIOUS METALS REFINING
We have to some extent specialized in platinum in the past, but trade in all precious metals.
NICKEL AND COBALT
Nickel loves exotic locations. It’s found in New Caledonia, Australia, Cuba and Indonesia. Not exotic enough for you? It’s also commonly found in meteorites! Still not exotic enough? Well about thirty percent of the worlds nickel comes from the untamed wilds of Ontario, Canada... around the Sudbury area. How about that for exotic, eh?
It’s used in the making of stainless steel and other corrosion-resistant alloys, in tubing and plays an important role in the desalination plants that convert sea water into fresh water. Some say, it is also used to make coins.
While Cobalt mostly hangs it hat in Zaire and Morocco, like nickel it’s present both in Canada... and meteorites. What’s up with that? Cobalt has magnetic properties similar to those of iron, and cobalt salts give glass a wonderfully rich, deep blue color
Cobalt is also essential for all animal organisms. Vitamen B12 is a compound containing cobalt, and is found in high concentrations in both Vegemite and Mar-mite. Yum!