LONDON (Reuters)
- Russian scientists are building a wooden pyramid over a volcanic
vent on an island off the north coast of Japan to try to trap
gases containing the rare metal rhenium, the New Scientist reported
Wednesday. Rhenium, a hard-wearing silvery metal with a high melting
point, is an essential part of aerospace components, satellites
and missiles and also is used as a catalyst for producing high-octane
fuels.
A Russian
expedition on Iturup, a small island that is part of the Kuril
chain, is building a test pyramid with a 30-foot square base over
a smoke vent on the Kudriavy volcano this month, the magazine
said. The scientists hope rhenium sulphide gas will be trapped
in the pyramid and then channeled to another trap filled with
a mineral called zeolite, which absorbs the gas. Pure rhenium
sulphide gas can then be released by heating the zeolite, the
magazine added.
The Russian
rhenium-hunters, led by Alexander Kremenetsky from the Institute
of Mineralogy, Geochemistry and Crystal Chemistry of Rare Earth
Elements in Moscow, believe they eventually may be able to produce
two tons of rhenium a year if they put a cap over Kudriavy"s
whole field of smoke vents. This compares to 40-45 tons produced
worldwide each year, New Scientist said. About 15-17 tons are
produced annually by Chile"s Molymet, six tons by U.S. producer
Cyprus-Amax and around three tons from Kazakhstan, with further
supplies coming from stockpiles.
Other scientists
doubt the Russian estimates. Tobias Fischer, an assistant professor
of vulcanology at the University of New Mexico who went to Iturup
in 1996, and others have said Kudriavy would produce about 10
times less rhenium than the Russian estimates. Rhenium trades
at about $1,325 a kilo. Most of the rhenium currently available
is a by-product of molybdenum sulphide which is in turn a by-product
of copper.
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