Nickel is a transition element that exhibit a mixture of ferrous and nonferrous metal properties. About 65% of nickel consumed in the Western world is used to make austenitic stainless steel. The aerospace industry is a leading consumer of nickel-based super alloys which are used to manufacture turbine blades, discs, and critical components of aircraft engines. Nickel is also used in land-based combustion turbines in electric power generation stations. About 25% of nickel consumption is used in alloy steels, rechargeable batteries, chemicals, currency (coinage), foundry products, and plating.

Copper is one of the oldest metals used and is extremely important in modern civilization. Copper has high level properties such as high ductility, malleability, thermal and electrical conductivity, and resistance to corrosion. Copper is the third most consumed industrial metal in the world. Copper is used in power transmission, power generation, building wiring, plumbing and piping, telecommunications, electrical and electronic products. Copper is also widely used in the building construction industry which is the single largest market. Copper byproducts from manufacturing and obsolete copper products are readily recycled and contribute significantly to copper supply.

Tungsten is a metal with a wide range of use. Tungsten is mostly used in cemented carbides. Cemented carbides are wear-resistant materials used by the metalworking, mining, and construction industries. Tungsten metal wires, electrodes, and contacts are used in lighting fixtures, electronic, electrical, heating, and welding applications. Tungsten is also used to make heavy metal alloys for armaments, heat sinks, and high density applications, such as weights and counterweights; super alloys for turbine blades; tool steels; and wear-resistant alloy parts and coatings.

Gypsum is primarily used in residential and commercial construction. Most gypsum in the United States is used to make wallboard for homes, offices, and commercial buildings. In commercial construction, gypsum is used in concrete for highways, bridges, buildings , and other structures. Gypsum is also used as a soil conditioner on large tracts of land in suburban areas.

Salt is also known as sodium chloride. Salt is routinely used in season food as a flavor enhancer. Salt can also be used to apply rock salt to walkways to remove ice in the winter. Salt is also widely used for commercial purposes as feedstock for chlorine and caustic soda applications. Both chlorine and caustic soda are inorganic chemicals used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic made from chlorine and paper pulping chemicals manufacture from caustic soda.

Tin is used as a protective coating or as an alloy with other metals such as lead or zinc. Tin is used in coatings for steel containers, solders for building pipes or electrical circuits, bearing alloys, glass making, and chemical applications. Tin is relatively scarce element with an abundance in the earth's crust of about 2 parts per million.

Sulfur is primarily used as an industrial raw material . Sulfuric acid production ins the major end use for sulfur and consumption of sulfuric acid has been regarded as one of the best indexes of a nation's industrial development.

Silver has been used for thousands of years as ornaments, utensils, and currency. Pure silver has the highest thermal and electrical conductivity of all metals. Silver has many industrial applications as in mirrors, electrical, electronic products, and photography which is the single largest end use of the compound.

Zircon is the primary source of all halfnium. Zirconium and hafnium are contained in zircon at a ratio of about 50 to 1. Zirconium is a coproduct or byproduct of the mining and processing of heavy-mineral sands for the titanium minerals, ilmenite and rutilke, or tin minerals. The major end uses of zircon are refractories, foundry sands, and ceramic opacification. Zircon is also marketed as a natural gemstone, and its oxide is processed to produce the diamond simulant, cubic zirconia.Zirconium is used in nuclear fuel cladding, chemical piping in corrosive environments, heat exchangers, and various specialty alloys.

Cadmium is a soft, malleable, ductile, bluish-white metal. Cadmium is produced mainly as a byproduct from mining, smelting, and refining sulfide ores of zinc, and to a lesser degree, lead and copper. Approximately 75% of cadmium is used in batteries with the remainder used in pigments, coatings , plating, and as stabilizers for plastics.

Beryllium (Be) is one of the lightest of all metals and has one of the highest melting points of any light metal. Beryllium metal is used principally in aerospace and defense applications because of its stiffness, light weight, and dimensional stability over a wide temperature range. Beryllium-copper alloys are used in a wide variety of applications because of their electrical and thermal conductivity. High strength and hardness, good corrosion and fatigue resistance, and non-magnetic properties.

Germanium is mainly a byproduct of zinc ore processing. Germanium is a hard, grayish-white element. The mineral has a metallic luster and the same crystal structure as diamond but brittle like glass. Germanium is a semiconductor with electrical properties between those of a metal and a insulator.

Vanadium is used with other ferrous alloys to improve properties. Vanadium is used in automobile and machinery markets for products such as axles, crankshafts, gears, and other critical components. Vanadium is used with aluminum to give strength in titanium alloys used in jet engines and high-speed airframes.

Aluminum is the second most abundant metallic element in the Earth's crust after silicon, yet it is a comparatively new industrial metal that has been produced in commercial quantities for just over 100 years. It weighs about one-third as much as steel or copper; is malleable, ductile, and easily machined and cast; and has excellent corrosion resistance and durability. Measured either in quantity or value, aluminum's use exceeds that of any other metal except iron, and it is important in virtually all segments of the world economy. Some of the many uses for aluminum are in transportation (automobiles, airplanes, trucks, railcars, marine vessels, etc.), packaging (cans, foil, etc.), construction (windows, doors, siding, etc), consumer durables (appliances, cooking utensils, etc.), electrical transmission lines, machinery, and many other applications. Aluminum recovery from scrap (recycling) has become an important component of the aluminum industry. A common practice since the early 1900's, aluminum recycling is not new. Recycling was a low-profile activity until the late 1960's when recycling of aluminum beverage cans finally vaulted recycling into the public consciousness. Sources for recycled aluminum include automobiles, windows and doors, appliances, and other products. However, it is the recycling of aluminum cans that seems to have the highest profile.

Antimony in its elemental form is a silvery white, brittle crystalline solid that exhibits poor electrical and heat conductivity properties. Commercial forms of antimony are generally ingots, broken pieces, granules, and cast cake. Other forms are powder, shot, and single crystals.

Estimates of the abundance of antimony in the Earth's crust range from 0.2 to 0.5 parts per million. Antimony is chalcophile, occurring with sulfur and the heavy metals, lead, copper, and silver. Over a hundred minerals of antimony are found in nature. Stibnite (Sb2S3) is the predominant ore mineral of antimony.

The most important use of antimony metal is as a hardener in lead for storage batteries. The metal also finds applications in solders and other alloys. Antimony trioxide is the most important of the antimony compounds and is primarily used in flame-retardant formulations. These flame-retardant applications include such markets as children's clothing, toys, aircraft and automobile seat covers.

Barite (also referred to as "barytes) is used as an aggregate in a "heavy" cement is crushed and screened to a uniform size. Most barite is ground to a small, uniform size before it is used as a filler or extender, an addition to industrial products, or a weighting agent in petroleum well drilling mud specification barite. Although barite contains a "heavy" metal (barium), it is not a toxic chemical.

Gallium is not produced in the United States, and demand is satisfied by imports, primarily high-purity material from France and low-purity material from Kazakhstan and Russia. More than 95% of gallium consumed in the United States is in the form of gallium arsenide (GaAs). Analog integrated circuits are the largest application for gallium, with optoelectronic devices [mostly laser diodes and light-emitting diodes] as the second largest end use.

Manganese (Mn) is essential to iron and steel production by virtue of its sulfur-fixing, deoxidizing, and alloying properties. Steelmaking, including its ironmaking component, accounts for most domestic manganese demand, presently in the range of 85% to 90% of the total. Manganese ferroalloys, consisting of various grades of ferromanganese and silicomanganese, are used to provide most of this key ingredient to steelmaking. Products for construction, machinery, and transportation are leading end uses of manganese. Manganese also is a key component of certain widely used aluminum alloys and, in oxide form, dry cell batteries. As ore, additional quantities of manganese are used for such nonmetallurgical purposes as plant fertilizers, animal feed, and colorants for brick.