introduction
4  less common nonferrous metals
  4.1  alkali metals
    4.1.1  lithium
    4.1.1.1  description and general properties
    4.1.1.2  history
    4.1.1.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.1.1.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.1.1.5  industrial applications and uses
    4.1.1.6  lithium mineral and chemical prices
    4.1.1.7  lithium mineral, carbonate, and metal producers
    4.1.1.8  further reading
    4.1.2  sodium
    4.1.2.1  description and general properties
    4.1.2.2  history
    4.1.2.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.1.2.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.1.2.5  industrial applications and uses
    4.1.2.6  transport, storage, and safety
    4.1.2.7  major producers of sodium metal
    4.1.2.8  further reading
    4.1.3  potassium
    4.1.3.1  description and general properties
    4.1.3.2  history
    4.1.3.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.1.3.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.1.3.5  industrial applications and uses
    4.1.3.6  further reading
    4.1.4  rubidium
    4.1.4.1  description and general properties
    4.1.4.2  histor~r
    4.1.4.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.1.4.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.1.4.5  industrial applications and uses
    4.1.4.6  major rubidium producers
    4.1.4.7  further reading
    4.1.5  cesium
    4.1.5.1  description and general properties
    4.1.5.2  history
    4.1.5.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.1.5.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.1.5.5  industrial applications and uses
    4.1.5.6  cesium metal producers
    4.1.5.7  further reading
    4.1.6  francium
  4.2  alkaline-earth metals
    4.2.1  beryllium
    4.2.1.1  description and general properties
    4.2.1.2  history
    4.2.1.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.2.1.4  mining and mineral dressing
    4.2.1.5  processing and industrial preparation
    4.2.1.6  industrial applications and uses
    4.2.1.7  major beryllium metal producers
    4.2.1.8  further reading
    4.2.2  magnesium and magnesium alloys
    4.2.2.1  description and general properties
    4.2.2.2  history
    4.2.2.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.2.2.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.2.2.5  properties of magnesium alloys
    4.2.2.6  industrial applications and uses
    4.2.2.7  recycling of magnesium scrap and drosses
    4.2.2.8  major magnesium metal producers
    4.2.2.9  further reading
    4.2.3  calcium
    4.2.3.1  description and general properties
    4.2.3.2  history
    4.2.3.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.2.3.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.2.3.5  industrial applications and uses
    4.2.3.6  calcium metal producers
    4.2.3.7  further reading
    4.2.4  strontium
    4.2.4.1  description and general properties
    4.2.4.2  history
    4.2.4.2  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.2.4.3  processing and industrial preparation
    4.2.4.4  industrial applications and uses
    4.2.5  barium
    4.2.5.1  description and general properties
    4.2.5.2  history
    4.2.5.2  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.2.5.3  processing and industrial preparation
    4.2.5.4  industrial applications and uses
    4.2.6  radium
    4.2.6.1  description and general properties
    4.2.6.2  history
    4.2.6.3  natural occurrence
    4.2.6.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.2.6.5  industrial applications and uses
  4.3  refractory metals
    4.3.1  general overview
    4.3.1.1  common properties
    4.3.1.2  corrosion resistance
    4.3.1.3  cleaning, descaling, pickling, and etching
    4.3.1.4  machining of pure reactive and refractory metals
    4.3.1.5  pyrophoricity of refractory metals
    4.3.2  titanium and titanium alloys
    4.3.2.1  description and general properties
    4.3.2.2  history
    4.3.2.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.3.2.4  mining and mineral dressing
    4.3.2.5  titanium slag and slagging
    4.3.2.6  synthetic rutiles
    4.3.2.7  titanium dioxide (titania)
    4.3.2.8  titanium sponge
    4.3.2.9  ferrotitanium
    4.3.2.10  titanium metal ingot
    4.3.2.11  titanium metal powder
    4.3.2.12  commercially pure titanium
    4.3.2.13  titanium alloys
    4.3.2.14  corrosion resistance
    4.3.2.15  titanium metalworking
    4.3.2.16  titanium machining
    4.3.2.17  titanium joining
    4.3.2.18  titanium etching, descaling, and pickling
    4.3.2.19  titanium anodizing
    4.3.2.20  industrial applications and uses
    4.3.2.21  major producers of titanium metal sponge and ingot.
    4.3.2.22  world and international titanium conferences
    4.3.2.23  further reading
    4.3.3  zirconium and zirconium alloys
    4.3.3.1  description and general properties
    4.3.3.2  history
    4.3.3.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.3.3.4  mining and mineral dressing
    4.3.3.5  processing and industrial preparation
    4.3.3.6  zirconium alloys
    4.3.3.7  corrosion resistance
    4.3.3.8  zirconium machining
    4.3.3.9  industrial uses and applications
    4.3.3.10  zirconium metal producers
    4.3.3.11  further reading
    4.3.4  hafnium and hafnium alloys
    4.3.4.1  description and general properties
    4.3.4.2  history
    4.3.4.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.3.4.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.3.4.5  industrial applications and uses
    4.3.4.6  major hafnium metal producers
    4.3.4.7  further reading
    4.3.5  vanadium and vanadium alloys
    4.3.5.1  description and general properties
    4.3.5.2  history
    4.3.5.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores.
    4.3.5.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.3.5.5  industrial applications and uses.
    4.3.5.6  major vanadium producers
    4.3.5.7  further reading
    4.3.6  niobium and niobium alloys
    4.3.6.1  description and general properties
    4.3.6.2  history
    4.3.6.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.3.6.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.3.6.5  properties of niobium alloys
    4.3.6.6  niobium metalworking
    4.3.6.7  niobium machining
    4.3.6.8  niobium joining and welding
    4.3.6.9  niobium cleaning, pickling, and etching
    4.3.6.10  industrial applications and uses
    4.3.6.11  major producers of niobium metal
    4.3.6.12  further reading
    4.3.7  tantalum and tantalum alloys
    4.3.7.1  description and general properties
    4.3.7.2  history
    4.3.7.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores.
    4.3.7.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.3.7.5  properties of tantalum alloys
    4.3.7.6  tantalum metalworking
    4.3.7.7  tantalum machining
    4.3.7.8  tantalum joining
    4.3.7.9  tantalum cleaning and degreasing
    4.3.7.10  tantalum cladding and coating techniques............
    4.3.7.11  industrial applications and uses
    4.3.7.12  major tantalum metal producers
    4.3.7.13  further reading
    4.3.8  chromium and chromium alloys
    4.3.8.1  description and general properties
    4.3.8.2  history
    4.3.8.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.3.8.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.3.8.5  industrial applications and uses
    4.3.8.6  major chromite and ferrochrome producers
    4.3.8.7  further reading
    4.3.9  molybdenum and molybdenum alloys
    4.3.9.1  description and general properties
    4.3.9.2  history
    4.3.9.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores..
    4.3.9.4  processing and industrial preparation.
    4.3.9.5  properties of molybdenum alloys
    4.3.9.6  molybdenum metalworking
    4.3.9.7  molybdenum joining
    4.3.9.8  molybdenum machining
    4.3.9.9  molybdenum cleaning, etching, and pickling
    4.3.9.10  industrial applications and uses
    4.3.9.11  world molybdenum metal producers
    4.3.9.12  further reading
    4.3.10  tungsten and tungsten alloys
    4.3.10.1  description and general properties
    4.3.10.2  history
    4.3.10.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.3.10.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.3.10.5  properties of tungsten alloys
    4.3.10.6  industrial applications and uses
    4.3.10.7  major tungsten metal and hardmetal producers
    4.3.10.8  further reading
    4.3.11  rhenium and rhenium alloys
    4.3.11.1  description and general properties.
    4.3.11.2  history
    4.3.11.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.3.11.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.3.11.5  industrial applications and uses
  4.4  noble and precious metals
    4.4.1  silver and silver alloys
    4.4.1.1  description and general properties.
    4.4.1.2  history
    4.4.1.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.4.1.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.4.1.5  silver alloys
    4.4.1.6  industrial applications and uses
    4.4.1.7  further reading
    4.4.2  gold and gold alloys
    4.4.2.1  description and general properties
    4.4.2.2  history
    4.4.2.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.4.2.4  mineral dressing, and mining
    4.4.2.5  processing and industrial preparation
    4.4.2.6  gold alloys
    4.4.2.7  industrial applications and uses
    4.4.2.8  major gold producers and suppliers
  4.5  platinum-group metals
    4.5.1  general overview
    4.5.2  natural occurrence, chief minerals, and ores
    4.5.3  common physical and chemical properties
    4.5.4  the six platinum group metals
    4.5.4.1  ruthenium
    4.5.4.2  rhodium
    4.5.4.3  palladium
    4.5.4.4  osmium
    4.5.4.5  iridium
    4.5.4.6  platinum
    4.5.5  pgm alloys
    4.5.6  pgms corrosion resistance
    4.5.6.1  industrial applications and uses
    4.5.6.2  major producers and suppliers of pgms
    4.5.7  further reading
  4.6  rare-earth metals
    4.6.1  description and general properties
    4.6.2  history
    4.6.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.6.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.6.5  industrial applications and uses
    4.6.6  major producers and suppliers of rare earths
    4.6.7  further reading
    4.6.8  scandium (sc)
    4.6.8.1  description and general properties
    4.6.8.2  history
    4.6.8.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.6.8.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.6.8.5  industrial applications and uses
    4.6.8.6  scandium metal, alloys, and chemicals
  4.7  uranides
    4.7.1  uranium
    4.7.1.1  description and general properties
    4.7.1.2  history
    4.7.1.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.7.1.4  mineral dressing and mining
    4.7.1.5  processing and industrial preparation
    4.7.1.6  industrial applications and uses
    4.7.1.7  further reading
    4.7.2  thorium
    4.7.2.1  description and general properties
    4.7.2.2  history
    4.7.2.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.7.2.4  processing and industrial preparation
    4.7.2.5  industrial applications and uses
    4.7.2.6  further reading
    4.7.3  plutonium
    4.7.3.1  description and general properties
    4.7.3.2  history
    4.7.3.3  natural occurrence, minerals, and ores
    4.7.3.4  processing and industrial preparation