Period 6 element 1783. Its important ores include wolframite and scheelite. The free element is remarkable for its robustness, especially the fact that it has the highest melting point of all the non-alloyed metals and the second highest of all the elements after carbon. Also remarkable is its high density of 19.3 times that of water, comparable to that of uranium and gold, and much higher (about 1.7 times) than that of lead. Tungsten with minor amounts of impurities is often brittle and hard, making it difficult to work. However, very pure tungsten, though still hard, is more ductile, and can be cut
Flux melting Flux melting In igneous petrology, flux melting occurs when water and other volatile components are added to hot solid rock. In engineering and metallurgy, flux is a substance, such as salt, that produces a low melting point mixture with a metal oxide. In the same way, the addition of water and other volatile compounds to rocks composed of silicate minerals lowers the melting temperature of those rocks. In subduction zones, the ultramafic rock of the upper mantle is melted by the addition of volatiles from the down-going plate. The subducting slab of oceanic crust carries water and other volatiles into