Moly the minor goes major

The word molybdenum is not one that trips easily off the tongue, and this probably explains why those in the business usually refer to it simply as “moly”.

A silvery grey metallic element, moly is most commonly found in the form of the mineral molybdenite, whose name derives from the Greek molybdos, meaning leadlike. In ancient times molybdenite was often confused with galena, the mineral of lead, and also with graphite. But, unlike lead, molybdenum is hard and has a high melting temperature of 2610 degrees Celsius.

At Kennecott Utah Copper’s vast Bingham Canyon mine, just outside Salt Lake City in Utah, US, copper has historically been the star turn, the mine’s raison d’être. Indeed, Bingham Canyon has produced more copper metal than any mine in history – about 17m tonnes.

But along with the main payload of copper come several by products, notably gold, silver – and molybdenum. It is its physical and chemical properties that make moly such a useful component in steel and other metal alloys, where they help confer hardness, corrosion resistance and high temperature strength (see Molybdenum: the hard facts).

Traditionally, moly has been regarded as a useful but generally unexciting contributor to the operation’s output and its financial performance. Today, though, thanks to a meteoric rise in the price it commands in world markets, this once humble metal is enjoying a spell in the limelight.