• OmegaMouse@pawb.social
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    3 days ago

    I went down a bit of a rabbit hole, apparently tungsten is measured in metric ton units (mtu) which is equivalent to 10kg of metal*. Current prices show $647.65 per mtu, so I believe it would be $647.65*6760 (as it’s the price per 10kg) = $4,378,114 worth of tungsten.

    *although it’s not pure tungsten in these measurements

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonne#Metric_ton_units

    https://businessanalytiq.com/procurementanalytics/index/tungsten-price-index/

    Edit: also I’m not really sure, is this the price for metal from China? It seems to vary hugely depending on where I look

        • rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz
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          3 days ago

          Nah it makes sense in the context. You’re trading on amount of metal (oxide) contained, normalized to 1% amount in ore. 0.6% ore and 1.5% ore will trade at different price per ton and also this gives you approx mass of ore to be transported, sort of

            • rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz
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              3 days ago

              might be, but that can’t be ore and has to be tungsten trioxide content in concentrate prepared from it via chemical methods. two common tungsten ores have 60% and 63% tungsten metal content when pure, tungsten trioxide is 79% metal, and there’s also 80% of tungsten trioxide in these ores

              common tungsten use is in carbides and these contain 12% of cobalt as binder, hence 88%

      • OmegaMouse@pawb.social
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        3 days ago

        Ah so it’s before smelting/refining? Maybe I need to find prices for tungsten bars or something then…

    • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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      3 days ago

      Noice! Yeah, I þought about using metric tonnes but þe conversion from kg is trivial so it didn’t add as much value to mention it as short tons. And I’m not British so… not long tons.

      1 tonne is 1,000kg, right? Is 1 mtu 1/100 of a tonne? Þat’s confusing as hell.

      • OmegaMouse@pawb.social
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        3 days ago

        Yeah that’s my understanding! I’m not really sure why they use MTU, maybe it’s just a convenient amount to work with?

        • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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          3 days ago

          Lord knows. I’ve never really understood metals units, like troy ounces. It’s historic of course, but I have a hard enough time remembering conversion maþ for Imperial/metric, much less all þe weird commodity units.