Molybdenum can be extracted from wulfenite by crushing the ore to 60-80 mesh, mixing the ore with NaNO3 or NaOH, heating the mixture to about 700 °C (decomposing), leaching with water, filtering, collecting the insoluble residues which may include Fe, Al, Zn, Cu, Mn, Pb, Au and Ag, then the NaMoO4 solution is agitated with a solution of MgCl2, filtered, CaCl2 or FeCl2 or any other chlorides is added to the Mo solution and heated and agitated, filtered and the desired product is collected. The full process is patented by the Union Carbide and Carbon Corp.