For example, bauxite is used as flux for blast furnaces, while others such as wolframite, pyrolusite, and chromite are used in making ferrous alloys.
[3] Important non-ferrous metals include aluminium, copper, lead, tin, titanium, and zinc, and alloys such as brass.
Precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum and exotic or rare metals such as mercury, tungsten, beryllium, bismuth, cerium, cadmium, niobium, indium, gallium, germanium, lithium, selenium, tantalum, tellurium, vanadium, and zirconium are also non-ferrous.
Gold, silver and copper replaced some of the functions of other resources, such as wood and stone, owing to their ability to be shaped into various forms for different uses.
[10] Due to their rarity, these gold, silver and copper artifacts were treated as luxury items and handled with great care.