About
This dry range in the above photograph is near Gabbs, Nevada.
I remember stopping at a bar in Gabbs on a Saturday night in October 1993. We were low on gas, having foolishly skipped a possibility to fill up at Walker Lake. We’d been driving all day. In the deserted gravel lot, the sky was freezing black and spangled with stars.
I drank a beer and talked to the only other patron — a grizzled Vietnam veteran who worked at the molybdenum mine. The word molybdenum sounded strange, exotic. In 1993, the price of molybdenum was in free fall, and in 1994, it would reach a low of $3,510 per metric ton ($1.59 per pound). The mine was laying off workers and was in danger of closing.
In a world with blogs on every conceivable topic, molybdenum, element #42 seems a natural choice. As the posts come out, the somewhat eclectic scope of my interest in this metal should gradually become apparent.
I also write oklo.org, a site covering extrasolar planets, which are my professional research interest.
Disclaimer
Nothing on this site should be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any specific security nor as a solicitation of an order to buy or sell any specific security. Before making any trade for any reason you should consult your own financial advisor. The author may hold long or short positions in any of the securities discussed either before or after publication of an article mentioning such a security.
I have something to share regarding your favorite element. My great uncle died in 1997. In the thirties he worked on Wall Street for a very powerful broker. His first assignment out of college was to research the molybdenum industry. At the time the Germans were buying all the molybdenum they could get out of Mexican (?) mines. My uncle told his boss, who had very powerful friends in Washington that ALL the molybdenum was being shipped overseas.
The boss tried to get the U.S. military ‘on board’ with molybdenum but the top brass didn’t care one bit about it. All of the material was of course going into German tanks and tank steel, which made them somewhat impervious to most anti-tank shells at the time. To this day German tanks are considered light years ahead of the U.S. equivalent, and molybdenum is the reason.