Background | Name | Sources | Uses | Substitutes and Alternative Sources
Background Rhenium is a rare, silvery-white metallic element. Its atomic number is 75 and its symbol is Re. Rhenium was discovered in 1925 by a team of German scientists named Walter Noddack, Ida Tacke-Noddack, and Otto Berg. They discovered rhenium as a trace element in platinum ores and the mineral columbite. It is very dense. It has a melting temperature of 3186 degrees C (5767 degrees F). It is not known to have any health benefit for animals or plants. Rhenium does not form minerals of its own, but it does occur as a trace element in columbite, tantalite and molybdenite. These minerals are the principal sources of columbium (commonly called niobium), tantalum and molybdenum metals.
Rhenium is a very rare element that is produced principally as a by-product of the processing of porphry copper-molybdenum ores. Because it is scarce, very little rhenium is actually processed and isolated each year as compared to the millions of tons of copper and millions of pounds of molybdenum that are extracted from these same porphry copper deposits. As a result, the processing of rhenium poses no environmental threat. The equipment that reduces sulfur dioxide in these processing plants also removes any rhenium that may escape through the smokestacks.