Rhenium Production

Molybdenum concentrates are the main source of rhenium with 0.01-0.04% Rhenium and some copper deposits with 0.002-0.003% Rhenium. Gaseous Re₂O₇ with boiling T= 360 °C is removed on different stages of crude copper production with furnace gases and concentrates in dust-collecting system stuff from which it is extracted through leaching by low-concentrated H₂SO₄ with pyrolusite (manganese dioxide) added as an oxidant. Rhenium is obtained from the produced solutions by sorption or extraction. Ammonium perrhenate is the product which is then reduced using hydrogen and processed by powder metallurgy methods and fusion in electron-beam furnace.