Think tank to drum up new uses for molybdenum

VINA DEL MAR, Chile (Reuters) - Scientists from around the world have joined forces in what they call a "Molybdenum Offensive," to work out strategies by the end of this year that will boost demand for the resilient metal.

The Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research in Materials (CIMAT), based in Santiago, launched a challenge in March to global scientists to come up with proposals to boost the tonnage demanded by manufacturers in the shortest possible time.

About 300 researchers in 32 countries responded with 96 preliminary proposals. From 10 to 20 percent of these will be short-listed in coming weeks, and winners of annual grants of $100,000 to develop ideas will be announced in December, CIMAT director Fernando Lund said.

They will have one year and potentially up to two years to develop their ideas.

"The idea was to take molybdenum on the offensive," Lund told an annual meeting of the International Molybdenum Association (IMOA) in Vina del Mar, Chile. "We want to bring to the surface what people are thinking about molybdenum around the world."

Molybdenum is used mostly in steel, to make it strong and flexible and, in the case of cutlery and outdoor metal structures and sculptures, to make them shiny and stop rusting.

Prices for the metal have shot up from about $5 per pound in 2004 to $33 per pound, driven by the same forces that have propelled other commodities -- tremendous growth in China, and to a smaller extent, in other developing economies.

But even as other metal prices eased off in recent weeks and months, molybdenum has held its highs, in part because of its wide gamut of uses, in steel and otherwise.

Some ideas for CIMAT's competition may exploit molybdenum's unique characteristic in metals other than steel, said Lund, who is barred by confidentiality rules from discussing specific proposals. "We have received some very unexpected ideas."

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)