Application.

1. Metal is applied in the chemical industry (reactors, pipelines, pumps), easy alloys, prosthesis. It is the basic constructional material in aircraft, rocket building and shipbuilding.

2. Titanium is the alloying additive to steel.

3. Nitinol (nickel - titanium) - the alloy possessing memory of a form: it is applied in medicine and technics.

4. Titanium aluminides are the very stable to oxidation and high-temperature compounds, that allows to use them in aircraft and motor industry as constructional materials.

5. White titanium dioxide is used in paints (titanic whitewash), by manufacture of paper and plastic. Food additive Е171.

6. Titanium-organic compounds are applied as the catalyst and the hardener in the chemical and paint and varnish industry.

7. Inorganic compounds of titanium are applied in the chemical, electronic, fiber glass industry as the additive or coverings.

8. Titanium diboride - the important component of superhard materials for processing of metals.

9. Titanium nitride is applied to tools covering.

10. Barium titanate BaTiO₃, lead titanate PbTiO₃ and other titanates are ferroelectrics.

The markets of consumption. In 2005 company Titanium Corporation has published the following data of titanium consumption in the world: 60 % - a paint, 20 % - plastic, 13 % - a paper, 7 % - mechanical engineering.

Prices: 15-25 $ for kg, depending on purity. Purity and mark of crude titanium (titanic sponge) is usually defined on the degree of its plasticity.

Summary: technological methods, applied in rare metals metallurgy, have a number of features.

• The ore raw materials containing rare metals are poor as a rule. Therefore the special value has concentration of ores.

 Often ores of rare metals have difficult structure (for example, the titanium-niobium-tantalum ores containing rare-earth elements); in this connection the big attention is given to complex processing of raw materials with extraction of all valuable components.

• At complexity of initial raw materials structure the industry demands much of metal purity. The admissible impurity content is defined as the 100-th, thousand and ten-thousand shares of percent. In some cases the problem becomes complicated necessity of separation of elements with similar properties (for example, Hf-Zr, Nb-Ta). Therefore processes of impurity separation and production of high purity compounds play the special role.

 Any rare metal is not melted directly from raw materials. Originally from an ore concentrate pure chemical compounds are received which serve as an initial material for manufacture of metals.

 Only four metals (gallium, indium, thallium and rhenium) can be allocated directly from water solutions of their salts; other metals are received by pyrometallurgical methods.

• At first refractory metals are received in the form of powder or porous material – sponge which are transformed into compact metals by the arc or electron-beam melting in the cooled copper crucible or by powder metallurgy method. Production of some metals in the pure state is probably only at use of vacuum technics.

Reduction way	Metal
Allocation from the water solution by cementation or electrolysis	Gallium, indium, thallium, rhenium
Reduction of oxides or salts by hydrogen, carbon oxide (II) or carbon at high temperatures	Tungsten, molybdenum, rhenium, germanium
Reduction of oxides or salts by metals (metallothermy) or electrolysis in fused mediums	Titan, niobium, tantalum, vanadium, zirconium, lithium, beryllium, rare-earth elements, thorium, uranium