How Is Tungsten Obtained?

Finding Tungsten
Tungsten is often found in conjunction with other metals such as wolframite (the element in which tungsten was first discovered whose name means "devourer of tin") and scheelite. Around the world, China is the most common place that tungsten is found and mined, though other locales such as Austria, Bolivia and Portugal also have mines that produce respectable amounts of this metal for use in light bulbs, rockets, and in the case of some first world countries, spacecraft.

Refining the Tungsten
Once the ores containing tungsten have been mined from the earth, a process developed by those who discovered tungsten (the Elhuyar brothers Juan and Fausto who were chemists in the late 1700s) is used to purify the metal. The ore that contains the tungsten is crushed, cleaned and then treated with various alkalis so that tungsten trioxide is formed. The tungsten trioxide is then heated using either carbon or hydrogen gas, which then separates the tungsten metal from either the water vapor or the carbon dioxide that forms, depending on which gas was used in the heating and refining process.

The Final Step
Pure tungsten, which is often a whitish or a gray color once it's separated from the ore it was mined in, is in a state referred to as powered tungsten. If necessary, powered tungsten can be used right away without any further modifications. However, if there is no pressing need for the tungsten right then, it will be shaped into bars to be stored or transported. Given that tungsten is a relatively malleable and ductile metal, this process isn't a very difficult one.

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