1. Physical and chemical properties

Walter Noddack, Ida Take and Otto Berg discovered rhenium in 1925 by analyzing its X-ray spectrum. They were the first to isolate it. Initially, rhenium was produced from the residues of German copper metallurgy. During the Second World War, the United States could no longer obtain supplies from Germany, so Melaven and Bacon began producing rhenium from the dust generated by roasting molybdenite at Miami Copper. Their patent was filed to recover rhenium from Washington, Pennsylvania, where Kennecott's molybdenite was roasted. Production began in 1956. Shattuck Chemical, an independent company roasting molybdenite in Colorado, licensed the Kennecott process and became the world's leading producer in the 1960s. Shattuck Chemical's recovery methods were eventually adopted by Molibdenos y Metales (Molymet) in Chile, which became the Western...