Tungsten is an important alloying element in high-speed and other tool steels, and is used to a lesser extent in some stainless and structural steels. Tungsten is often added to steel melts as ferrotungsten, which can contain up to 80% tungsten. World ferrotungsten production is dominated by China, which in 2008 exported 4,835 t (gross weight) of the alloy. Ferrotungsten is relatively expensive, with the prices around $31–44 per kilogram of contained tungsten.
A process for producing ferrotungsten alloys by forming a uniform mixture comprised of a finely-particulated tungsten-containing mineral, such as wolframite, scheelite, ferberite, and/or huebnerite; a supplemental quantity of a particulated iron-bearing material and a controlled amount of a carbonaceous reducing agent which is agglomerated into a plurality of pellets which are heated to an elevated temperature under a controlled vacuum for a period of time sufficient to effect a reduction of the tungstic oxide constituent to the metallic state and volatilization and extraction of the volatile constituents in the pellets, and an alloying of the metallic tungsten with the iron constituent, producing substantially dense sintered ferrotungsten alloy pellets.
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