What exactly is a Non Ferrous Metal?
Non Ferrous Metals are those which do not contain Iron. Non Ferrous Metals were some of the first metals discovered by early man and have been used since ancient times. Alloys such as Bronze, which is predominantly a mixture of two Non ferrous Metals, Copper and Tin, are also classed as Non Ferrous Metals.
Whilst some of the Non Ferrous Metals, such as Copper, Aluminium, Nickel, Lead and Zinc are considered to be commonplace, others such as Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium are highly prized.
The special properties of Non Ferrous Metals makes them valuable commodities and many of the technical advancements that have been achieved could not have been possible without Non Ferrous Metals.
Non Ferrous Metals have Atomic Numbers ranging from 3 to 83, and their properties are extremely varied.
| Classification of Non-ferrous metals as per periodic table of elements | |||||
| Alkali Metals | Alkaline Earth Metals | Transition Metals | Other Metals | Lanthanide Series | Actinide Series |
| Caesium | Barium | Chromium | Aluminium | Cerium | Neptunium |
| Cobalt | |||||
| Lithium | Beryllium | Copper | Antimony | Dysrposium | Plutonium |
| Gold | |||||
| Potassium | Calcium | Hanium | Bismuth | Erbium | Protactinium |
| Iridium | |||||
| Rubidium | Magnesium | Iron | Cadmium | Europium | Thorium |
| Lanthanum | |||||
| Sodium | Radium | Manganese | Gallium | Gadolinium | Uranium |
| Molybedenum | |||||
| Strontium | Nickel | Germanium | Holmium | ||
| Niobium | |||||
| Osmium | Indium | Lutetium | |||
| Palladium | |||||
| Platinum | Lead | Neodymium | |||
| Rhenium | |||||
| Rhodium | Mercury | Praseodymium | |||
| Ruthenium | |||||
| Scandium | Thallium | Samarium | |||
| Silver | |||||
| Tantalum | Tin | Terbium | |||
| Titanium | |||||
| Tungsten | Zinc | Thulium | |||
| Vanadium | |||||
| Yttrium | Ytterbium | ||||
| Zirconium | |||||
