Niobium.

Niobium

Niobium has a similar structure to Tantalum and is produced in a similar method. It too has a very high melting point of around 2470°C. It has excellent corrosive resistance and has good cold ductility. It is however half as dense as Tantalum.

Applications include; sintering trays and boats, special chemical applications, superconductors, medical components, jet engine parts and is used in the lighting industry.

Tantalum, What is it?

Tantalum

Tantalum is generally made from sintering the powdered ore to produce a metal with an extremely high melting point of approximately 2990°C. It has an excellent resistance to corrosion against molten metals and liquids, is biocompatible and has very high conductivity.

Applications include; heat exchanger tubes, charge carriers, capacitors, electrodes and grounding rings, jet engine parts, missile parts and vacuum furnace parts.

What is Molybdenum?

Molybdenum

Molybdenum is a very hard, pure element with an extremely high melting point of around 2620°C, it has a high thermal conductivity and is corrosive resistant to glass and other metals.

Applications include; sintering trays and boats, charge carriers, aerospace parts, plasma spraying nozzles and electrodes, sputtering targets, furnace components, glass stirrers, and medical parts.

Tantalum

Here at Special Metals we carry out various jobs, when it comes to working with Tantalum we are;

Suppliers of Tantalum

Manufacturers of Tantalum

Machined Tantalum

Tantalum Fabricators

Fabricated Tantalum

If you are interested in any of the options above then just click on the one your after and it will re-direct you to out site.

Who do we carry out work for?

Pharmaceutical Industry.

Specialist Stockist, Suppliers & Manufacturers of Machined and Fabricated products to the; Glass, Chemical,Aerospace, Medical, Oil, Gas,Pharmaceutical, Defence,Chemical & Electronic Industries.

Product Capability

We have the capacity to manufacture a wide range of parts to any given drawing, sample or customer requirement, using the most up to date Milling, Turning, Welding and Sheet Metal Working equipment available.

We specialize in the manufacture of components to very exacting quality standards, tight tolerance, customer specific requirements and offer a very responsive repair service. We pride ourselves on our levels of customer care and our ‘Total Quality’ approach ensures that our customers receive their orders on time, well packed and in perfect condition.

Special Metals currently carry out fabrication towards some of the following products;

• Furnace Heaters
• Furnace Units
• Glass Furnace Electrodes
• Susceptors
• Crucibles
• Screens
• Orifice Plates
• Tank Linings
• Vertical Strippers
• Pump Parts

• Discs
• Tubes
• Rivets
• Shell & Tube Heater
• Evaporation Boat / Trays
• Rod Heaters
• Special Vessels
• Valve Parts
• Venturi
• Flame Shields

• Bayonet Heaters
• Nozzles
• Electrode Tips
• Heating Elements
• Heating and Cooling Coils
• Agitators
• Spinnerettes
• Absorber Columns
• Valve Seats
• Repair Plugs

Special Metals Showcase

Showcase..

If you would like to view our show case its on our site on the front page.

It includes: 

Plant Machinery
Product Examples
Other Services
Meet the team.

Support for Arizona Mine

Arizona Sen. John McCain says a vast open pit mine project planned for the eastern slope of the Santa Rita Mountains, south of Tucson, can be superior for the economy and jobless Arizonans.

Throughout an appearance in the southern Arizona society of Green Valley Friday, McCain said “the state’s high unemployment rate presents a good argument for going forward with the Rosemont Copper mine”.

Opponents of the mine fret about water supplies and the environmental force.

McCain says environmentalists can’t “run and ruin this economy.”

He later added that “it’s important to have the proper studies to determine the mine’s effect on the environment”.

The Coronado National Forest is anticipated to open a draft environmental impact announcement on the mine by the end of June.

Augusta Resource Corp. plans to begin producing copper,molybdenum, silver and gold from the site by 2011.

Chile and China make huge investments.

The plans shape part of a 2.3 billion USD record asset package publicized by Codelco last week.

Experts insist that this project is necessary for the long term outlook of the firm.

“If Codelco wants to survive it needs new projects like the subterranean mine,” said former Codelco president Marcos Lima.

Codelco chiefs submitted an environmental impact assessment (EIA) to regional environmental authorities on Friday. The EIA tackles environmental concerns concerning bigger gas emissions and the impact of tunnelling operations on local aquifers.

The company hopes to start construction later on this year with an initial 25 million USD investment. Codelco expects the project to take eight years to finish and estimates a 42-year lifespan for the mine. Reports propose that subterranean reserves exceed 4 billion tons of copper and 310 million tons of molybdenum.

Molybdenum on a come back!

Molybdenum and cobalt have not performed as great as normal and the other metals rocketed while cobalt and Moly were in hiding. Moly a year ago was trading at 8.5x the price of copper, now it’s only 3.5x the cost. Moly to nickel was at 2.6x, now at 1.4x. At molybdenum’s hit the highest point in 2005, it was trading at a price 28 times that of copper.

But, Moly and cobalt are going to have a prospect, and that future comes next month when the London Metal Exchange launches the first ever futures market for these overlooked minerals.

These minerals have been priced too low compared to those already traded in the futures market. The added sauce to the coming Moly cobalt price rush will be the speculators. Copper, nickel, aluminium have all been climbing despite big run ups in stores.

Copper piping and boiler stolen, metal dealers warned.

Scrap metal dealers in west Cumbria have been told to watch out for thieves trying to sell stolen goods after a rise in burglaries.

Cumbria police started an investigation on Sunday after 5 empty properties on Bowflatts in the Great Clifton region of Workington were busted into.

The tank and copper piping were taken and a House-to-house investigation has been carried out in the neighborhood and CCTV footage looked over.

$20m clears the air for troubled Metal Storm

An investor has emerged for the troubled metal storm, which was announced yesterday a $20.2m credit facility from Global Emerging Markets. (GEM).

The equity based funding agreement lets the defense technology company to cash up pre-specified amount and repay in trade stocks.

The funds will be used to finance a development of Metalscore defenses.

“The company’s financial position is now more stable with the GEM facility in place,” Metal Storm chairman Terry O’Dwyer said.

Chile Mine Strike Over

At the second copper mine workers voted to end a strike due to pay, but is now set to continue.

Workers at the Chuquicamata mining complex based in Chile have accepted a new pay deal and additional bonus, which sees the end of 2 day strikes.

Worry about the stoppage’s affect on production has soared copper prices to a 16 month high.

Chuquicamata gives up to 4% of the worlds copper, along with Codelco which is the biggest copper producer in the world.

Market reaction to the information was low-key, as copper prices rose by 1% on Wednesday- increasing a 16 months high on the LondonMetal Exchange.

COPPER MINE PROGRESSING FORWARD

Augusta Resource Corp. is apparently moving in advance with its planned $900 million investment to mine the Rosemont copper-molybdenum deposit nearTucson, Ariz.

The location could become the third-largest copper mine in the United States, even though plans to mine the deposit have met with concerns from some local people and environmental groups.

According to Industrial Info Resources (IIR), Sugar Land, Texas, the Rosemont mine could be up to full construction in 2012. The open-pit Rosemont copper-molybdenum mine would then report for 10 percent of newly-mined copper output in the United States, making 200 million pounds per year, plus 4.7 million pounds per year of molybdenum and 2.4 million ounces per year of silver.

The deposit has a supply base of 7.7 billion pounds of copper, 190 million pounds of molybdenum, and 80 million ounces of silver, giving it a life span of say 20 years in production.

Cold pushing up metals and coal prices

Sub-zero temperatures accompanied by heavy snow across Europe and Asia are destroying manufacturing industry and mine production, says Fairfax analyst John Meyer.

Transportation disruption may cause some inventory destocking, adds Meyer.

He expects closing of the mines and some metal producers as snow makes mines unsafe.

‘Most mines and plants will try to continue through the snow but metal properties can change at such low temperatures and some plant will cease to function, although most underground mines should run so long as surface plant continues to operate.

‘Metals prices are rising on the disruption even though the overall economic impact has yet to be evaluated.’

Harsh winter conditions have also helped push up thermal coal prices.

‘China in particular is struggling with cold weather conditions, with news reports indicating that a cold front will be moving south to the provinces of Zhejiang, Jianxi and Hunan. Beijing is suffering cold temperatures not seen since 1971.

Base metals advance because of winter

On Wednesday Base Metals staged a large advance as oil prices dipped after reaching a 15 month high in the earlier session.

Copper rose 1.1 per cent to $7,610 a tonne in spite of information that workers at Chuquicamata in Chile, the world’s second largest mine, had accepted an enhanced wage offer from Codelco, the world’s major copper producer.

Aluminium added 1.2 per cent at $2,328.50 a tonne, bolstered by concerns that China will face authority shortages as a result of stern winter weather and that manufacture of the metal will be cut as an effect.

Arctic circumstances in Mongolia have led to the closure of some lead and zinc mines, boosting the prices of both thosemetals.

Altonorte and Union No 1 reach agreement

The Altonorte Metallurgical Complex announced that the Union 1 workers have accepted the company’s offer of having a new 3 year contract.

The company’s offer was submitted by a vote taken by the voters in the Labour Union 1 at a conference held and it includes a 2% alteration in base salaries, an end of negotiation bonus of CLP 2,400,000, a soft loan of CLP 2,040,000 and an annual production bonus of CLP 750,000 among other benefits.

Mr José Urrutia GM of Altonorte stated ‘the offer presented to the workers represents the best effort the company could make to enhance salaries and benefits, considering the complexities of the market for copper concentrate smelters’.

Also that “the total value offered is equal to the last offer we presented in December 11, 2009.”

Mr Urrutia added ‘I was satisfied about reaching this agreement through dialogue between the parties’

He said “I was always convinced we could agree a collective contract that would be sustainable over time through dialogue and in a climate of respect, which is what finally happened.”

The prior collective contract with Labour Union No. 1 had expired on December 18th 2009 and the union had been on strike since December 28th 2009.

274 workers belong to Labour Union No 1, which represents about 40% of the company’s own workers at the metallurgical complex.

Altonorte is a metallurgical complex which doesn’t contain a mine but provides treatment of raw materials and alternative materials, copper concentrates and other mining by products to obtain copper anodes, sulphuric acid, and molybdenumoxide.