Sodium/molybdenum composite metal articles and methods for producing metal articles

A method of producing a metal article, comprising:

• producing a supply of a composite metal powder by:
• providing a supply of molybdenum metal powder;
• providing a supply of sodium molybdate;
• combining said molybdenum metal powder and said sodium molybdate with a liquid to form a slurry, said sodium molybdate being added to said molybdenum metal powder in an amount comprising from about 3% by weight to about 15% by weight sodium molybdate before being combined with said liquid;
• feeding said slurry into a stream of hot gas to produce the composite metal powder;
• and
• recovering the composite metal powder, said composite metal powder comprising from about 0.2% by weight to about 3.5% by weight retained sodium;
• and
• consolidating said composite metal powder to form the metal article, said metal article comprising a sodium/molybdenum metal matrix.