Production of substantially spherical metal powders

A method for producing a substantially spherical metal or metal alloy powder comprising:

• providing a particulate source metal including a primary particulate and having an average starting particle size, wherein the particulate source metal consists essentially of one or more of a metal, a metal alloy, a hydride thereof, or an oxide thereof;
• mixing the particulate source metal with a binder and an optional solvent to form a slurry;
• granulating the slurry to form substantially spherical granules, wherein each granule comprises an agglomeration of particulate source metal;
• debinding the granules at a debinding temperature to reduce a binder content of the granules forming debinded granules;
• at least partially sintering the debinded granules at a sintering temperature such that particles within each granule fuse together to form partially or fully sintered granules;
• recovering the sintered granules to form the substantially spherical metal or metal alloy powder.