1916] TREATMENT OF MOLYBDENUM ORES IN CANADA 275 
Tests: Before the blow-pipe wulfenite decrepitates and fuses below 2. 
With borax in the oxidizing flame it gives a colourless glass, which in 
the reducing flame becomes an opaque black or dirty green with black 
flecks. With salt of phosphorus in the oxidizing flame it gives a yellowish- 
green glass, which becomes dark green in the reducing flame. Heated 
with soda on charcoal, the powdered mineral yields metallic lead. On 
evaporation in hydrochloric acid it decomposes, forming lead chloride 
and molybdic oxide. Moistening the residue with water and adding 
metallic zinc gives an intense blue colour, which persists after dilution. 
Occurrences and Accompanying Minerals: Deposits of wulfenite are 
found almost wholly in veins, where it is associated with other lead 
minerals such as galena, cerussite, pyromorphite, vanadite, anglesite 
and descloizite. Gold and silver minerals also occur with it, and native 
gold is sometimes contained directly in the wulfenite crystals. 
Up to the present time, however, the mineral molybdenite has con- 
stituted the only economic ore of the metal in Canada. 
PRICES AND MARKETS. 
Molybdenite ores and concentrates are marketed on their content of 
MoS:, and are paid for as so much per unit of contained molybdenum 
sulphide. In Canada and the United States, the short ton of 2,000 
pounds and the unit (1% of a ton) twenty pounds, are used, whereas, 
in Great Britain and Australia, the long ton of 2,240 pounds and the 
unit of 22.4 pounds always apply. 
Under existing abnormal market conditions, brought about by the 
war, the prices being paid at the present time for molybdenite con- 
centrate are from 100 to 200% greater than pre-war quotations. In 
1908, high grade concentrates containing 90 to 95% MoS: were sold for 
$6.50 to $7.60 per unit, and in 1909 the price was as low as $5.65 per 
unit. 
In the Fall of 1915 the Imperial Government fixed a price of 105 
shillings per unit (long ton) for molybdenite concentrates containing 
not less than 85% MoSz, f.o.b., London and Liverpool, and as the mineral 
was under embargo which prohibited its export to any country outside 
of the British Empire, this price naturally became the official standard 
quotation for all ores and concentrates produced within the Empire. 
Since that date, however, licenses have been granted for the export of 
the mineral to France and Russia at the official quotations given above. 
The quotation, it should be noted, means 105 shillings per unit, 
22.4 pounds of molybdenite (MoS2), not 85% concentrates as many 
have imagined. This price corresponds to $1.09 per pound of MoS: 
contained in 85% concentrates, f.o.b., Ottawa, Ontario, at which point 
