Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2023 May 6

= May 6 =

Why is tungsten so cheap?
Why is tungsten so much cheaper than all the other noble metals like platinum and osmium? Or is it not that much cheaper and I'm just misunderstanding all the confusing price quotes that I find on the internet? They keep using different units for everything so I might just misunderstand them. – b_jonas 14:51, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
 * It may partially be that it's because it's not a Noble metal. --Phil Holmes (talk) 15:38, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
 * It also plays a role that tungsten is found in the relatively abundant minerals wolframite and scheelite, whereas platinum and osmium are both extremely rare. --Lambiam 19:54, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
 * According to its article, the top three countries produce just under 90,000 tonnes of tungsten a year, for platinum it's under 150 (according to the graph in List of countries by platinum production; another source says a bit more, but still under 200 tonnes), for osmium various sources vary, but none of them are higher than 1 tonne. So tungsten is a lot more readily available. Clarityfiend (talk) 09:06, 7 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the answers. – b_jonas 08:33, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
 * See Abundance of elements in Earth's crust, which shows that tungsten as an element is much more frequent than the other precious metals. – b_jonas 11:18, 8 January 2024 (UTC)