 Occurrence
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| The world's largest producers of molybdenum materials are the United States, Canada, Chile, Russia, and China.
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| Though molybdenum is found in such minerals as wulfenite (PbMoO4) and powellite (CaMoO4), the main commercial source of molybdenum is molybdenite (MoS2). Molybdenum is mined as a principal ore, and is also recovered as a byproduct of copper and tungsten mining.
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| Molybdenum is the 42nd most abundant element in the universe, and the 25th most abundant element in Earth's oceans, with an
average of 10.8 mt/km3. The Russian Luna 24 mission discovered a single molybdenum-bearing grain (1 x 0.6 um) in a pyroxene fragment taken from
Mare Crisium on the Moon.
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