Manganese

Manganese is a hard, brittle, silvery metal that is rarely used on its own. It is mined mostly in South Africa, Australia and Gabon, and lumpy nodules rich in it cover parts of the deep ocean floor. Johan Gottlieb Gahn first isolated it in 1774.

About 90% of manganese goes into steel, where it removes sulfur and oxygen and adds strength and toughness. In the television's remote, it is the manganese dioxide in every alkaline battery, which takes in electrons as the battery discharges. Added as manganese oxide, it also helps make the magnetic ferrite cores of inductors and transformers.