Tungsten Minerals and Deposits

Minerals

Tungsten occurs in the natural state only in the form of chemical compounds with other elements. Although more than twenty tungsten bearing minerals are known, only two of them are important for industrial use, namely wolframite and scheelite.

Pure scheelite has blue-white fluorescence in ultraviolet light, a property which is utilised in prospecting. Wolframite is a general term for iron and manganese tungstates where the iron/manganese ratio can vary. A mineral with more than 80% FeWO₄ is called Ferberite and a mineral with more than 80% MnWO₄ is called Hübnerite.

Deposits

All tungsten deposits are of magmatic or hydrothermal origin. During cooling of the magma, differential crystallization occurs, and scheelite and wolframite are often found in veins where the magma has penetrated cracks in the earth's crust. Most of the tungsten deposits are in younger mountain belts, i.e. the Alps, the Himalayas and the circum-Pacific belt.

The concentration of workable ores is usually between 0.3 and 1.0% WO₃.

 

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