Rhenium moves from Science Fiction to Aviation Week

Back in 1965 E.E. (Doc) Smith wrote "Subspace Explorers" a super science space opera.  In addition to much daring do and space warfare, it featured a super material with ten times the strength of good steel, made from the element rhenium.  As a holder of a PhD in chemistry, Smith knew rhenium was a scarce element, existing in little more than traces on earth.  He had his protagonists go prospecting in interstellar space and locate a far off planet rich in rhenium.
   That was then.  Now we have an article in Aviation Week reporting that the Chinese are placing orders for delivery of anywhere from 2 to 10 tons of rhenium a year, starting in 2016.  Rhenium (melting point 3182 C) improves the temperature resistance of nickel (melting point 1455 C) alloy jet engine turbine blades.  Five tons is estimated to be 10% of total world production. About 80% of rhenium production goes into jet engines, the rest makes catalysts for the chemical industry. 
   Rhenium is a byproduct of a byproduct.  Molybdenum is a byproduct of copper mining, and rhenium is found as an impurity in molybdenum.  The current price of rhenium ($3000 per kg)  is not far above the cost of the recovery process.  Increased demand could lead to vastly greater production, at a higher price, of course.