To solve the problems that a conventional process for producing a molybdenum metal requires a lot of steps, which is labor intensive, has low production rate, increases production costs requires separate processing equipment for each step, to increase capital costs and maintenance costs and provide only molybdenum metal having a surface area of about ≤0.8 m2/g and this molybdenum metal varies widely in size.

New forms of a molybdenum metal (12) and a apparatus (10) and a method for production thereof are provided. New forms of molybdenum metal have preferably a surface area of substantially 2.5 m2/g and a relatively uniform size. Preferred embodiments comprise: heating a precursor material (14) to a first temperature in the presence of reducing gas (62), and increasing the first temperature at least once to reduce the precursor material and form the molybdenum metal product.