Where Tungsten is found

Tungsten makes up a very small portion of the Earth’s crust and is a very scarce metal. Tungsten makes up just a miniscule 1.1 parts per million of the Earth’s crust. Just to get an idea, other elements such as Iron (about 63,000 parts per million) and lead (about 10 parts per million) make up a larger portion of the Earth’s crust. Tungsten’s closest “relatives” in the periodic table are usually considered to be molybdenum and tin, which make up similar parts per million of the Earth’s crust: 1.1. and 2.2 respectively.

Although, it sounds very small in the grand scheme of the parts per million of the Earth’s crust, the Earth’s crust is enormous and therefore there is still plenty of tungsten. However, it is never naturally found as a metal. Tungsten can only be found as a mineral, meaning it is found combined with other elements to form compounds. In fact, there are more than twenty tungsten minerals that can be found in nature, but only two of those are used to extract metal: scheelite and tungsten.

Tungsten is usually associated with a tin ore known as cassiterite that is usually found near granitic rocks. Tungsten is black-brown mineral and is one of the main sources for tungsten, as mentioned above. When found in its natural state, wolframite will contain varying levels of manganese tungstate and also iron tungstate. Depending on the composition of tungsten mineral, it will be called a different name. If the mineral contains more than 80% manganese tunsgstate is known as hubnerite, whereas if the mineral consists of more than 80% iron tungstate it will be known as ferberite.

Whereas tungsten will be found in that black brown color, Scheelite varies in color from white to green. Also, under ultraviolet light, pure scheelite will glow. Unlike wolframite that will have manganese tungstate or iron tungstate, scheelite will consist of calcium tungstate. Whether it is found as tungsten or scheelite, the tungsten metal can eventually be turned into a variety of things, including the tungsten carbide rings that are becoming increasingly popular.



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