Antimony Metal: What 99.65% Does Not Mean
Antimony is counted as contained metal, priced on one ingot grade and controlled on another; a mine’s headline of 14 million tons is ore, not antimony.
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Understand what a material does, how it is made, and where industrial value comes from. Evidence-led guides to grades, applications and supply chains.
High-Purity Alumina: Sodium Decides the Sale
High purity alumina is defined at 4N, but grade is the least useful column in the spec sheet. Sodium, crystal form and particle size decide the sale.
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High-Purity Aluminum: Two Thresholds
The term covers two different thresholds. Grade, controlled impurity and downstream step decide what a figure actually measures.
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High-Purity Gallium: 4N and 7N Are Two Trades
Gallium is made twice, in two different industries. China controls the first stage; the second stage decides what a wafer can be grown from.
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High-Purity Germanium: What 5N Buys
A germanium certificate is written in four different units: detectors in carriers, optics in transmission, fibre in a chemical, and 5N only in price.
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High-Purity Quartz: What Crucibles Demand
How high-purity quartz becomes crucibles and quartzware, why natural and synthetic materials coexist, and what supply claims actually establish.
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High-Purity Silicon: Solar and Chips Differ
How high-purity silicon becomes solar cells and chips, why Chinese production clusters matter, and what purity figures leave out.
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Tungsten Carbide: A Grade Is Two Numbers
Tungsten carbide is a powder, a compound and a cemented composite. A grade is cobalt against grain size, and one ISO code can carry different numbers.
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Tungsten Metal: Ten Kilograms, Not a Tonne
Tungsten concentrate and APT are quoted per metric ton unit of oxide, ten kilograms, and the licence tests are cumulative rather than one threshold.
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What Is Alumina Used For? The Form Decides
Alumina is one formula and four products. Metallurgy takes the tonnage; ceramics, chemicals and catalysts buy forms that a purity figure cannot describe.
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What Is Quartz Used For? Sand to Wafers
Quartz goes into glass, moulds, well completions, filters, silicon metal and oscillator circuits. The form decides which of those you can buy.
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