Name my metal!

[Xuc Xac]

[*]It's common in ore form, but the refined metal is incredibly rare. It can't be smelted from ore with current smithing techniques, and its magically inert status means that you can't use magic to refine it. So the only ways to get it are to gather it from the insides of volcanoes (the only place where the kind of temperatures necessary to smelt it occur naturally) or to use some very complicated chemical processes (which are difficult, dangerous, and too expensive to produce this metal in bulk).[/LIST]

How do they survive going into a volcano to get it? If they have the ability to go into a volcano and survive, why don't they just bring a big load of ore with them and use the volcano as a blast furnace to smelt all they want?

If it's very soft and ductile, I can see it being used for bullets because lead is also soft. However, they would be very light bullets. They wouldn't hit very hard and would be much more susceptible to wind pushing them off target. How can they make armor or shields out of it?