LOCATION: Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Plateau and Niger State
Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolated as a metal in 1783. Its important ores include scheelite and wolframite, the latter lending the element its alternate name.
Tungsten occurs in many alloys, which have numerous applications, including incandescent light bulb filaments, X-ray tubes, electrodes in gas tungsten arc welding, superalloys, and radiation shielding. Tungsten’s hardness and high density make it suitable for military applications in penetrating projectiles. Tungsten compounds are often used as industrial catalysts.
In its raw form, tungsten is a hard steel-grey metal that is often brittle and hard to work. Purified, monocrystalline tungsten retains its hardness (which exceeds that of many steels), and becomes malleable enough that it can be worked easily. It is worked by forging, drawing, or extruding but it is more commonly formed by sintering.
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Tungsten has thus far not been found in nature in its pure form. Instead, tungsten is found mainly in the minerals wolframite and scheelite.
Tungsten is mainly used in the production of hard materials based on tungsten carbide (WC), one of the hardest carbides. WC is an efficient electrical conductor, but W2C is less so. WC is used to make wear-resistant abrasives, and “carbide” cutting tools such as knives, drills, circular saws, dies, milling and turning tools used by the metalworking, woodworking, mining, petroleum and construction industries.
The jewelry industry makes rings of sintered tungsten carbide, tungsten carbide/metal composites, and also metallic tungsten. Because of tungsten carbide’s hardness, rings made of this material are extremely abrasion resistant, and will hold a burnished finish longer than rings made of metallic tungsten.
Tungsten has also been used in Dense inert metal explosives, which use it as dense powder to reduce collateral damage while increasing the lethality of explosives within a small radius.
