Molybdenum

Molybdenum is a hard, silvery-gray transition metal with a very high melting point. Small additions can make steel stronger and help certain stainless steels resist corrosion. Its compound molybdenum disulfide has a very different job: it acts as a solid lubricant, reducing friction between moving parts. In nature, molybdenum occurs in compounds rather than as free metal. Its main ore mineral is molybdenite, which contains molybdenum and sulfur. This mineral comes from dedicated mines and is also recovered as a by-product of copper mining. To obtain the metal, producers heat the ore in air to form an oxide, purify it, then use hydrogen to remove the oxygen.