Germanium America, 30–50% of current fiber optic lines are unused dark fiber, sparking discussion of over-production and a future reduction in demand. Worldwide, demand is increasing dramatically as countries such as China are installing fiber optic telecommunication lines throughout the country. Germanium Germanium is a chemical element with symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard, grayish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon. Pure germanium is a semiconductor with an appearance similar to elemental silicon. Like silicon, germanium naturally reacts and forms complexes with oxygen in nature. Because it seldom
Antimony gangue minerals. Antimony can be isolated from the crude antimony sulfide by reduction with scrap iron: The sulfide is converted to an oxide; the product is then roasted, sometimes for the purpose of vaporizing the volatile antimony(III) oxide, which is recovered. This material is often used directly for the main applications, impurities being arsenic and sulfide. Antimony is isolated from the oxide by a carbothermal reduction: The lower-grade ores are reduced in blast furnaces while the higher-grade ores are reduced in reverberatory furnaces. Antimony has consistently been ranked high in European and US risk lists concerning criticality of the element