ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with resource and processing aspects of the metal. It provides mineralogy and various types of deposits. The chapter describes a world survey of resources of the metal. It outlines in detail molybdenum ore mining and milling operations for the production of molybdenum concentrate. The chapter also provides a brief description of molybdenum resource processing in some of the leading molybdenum producing countries in the world. The metal occurs in a relatively small number of mineral species and there are two dozen altogether that are known. In the list of the molybdenum minerals that occur today in nature, molybdenite is by far the most important and abundant and is the only one that occurs independently. Molybdenite closely resembles lead, galena, and graphite, and because of this it has been confused with all of them in the past.
