Top 10 Rare and Valuable Metals

The precious metal always reminds us of gold, silver and the stuff related to money, but if you think gold or silver is the most expensive metal in the world, you’re wrong.

The so-called precious metal, that is, the metal with low content in the earth’s crust, which is difficult to explore, mine, and refine. Most of the precious metals have beautiful colors, and they are quite resistant to chemicals. Due to its unique physical and chemical properties, it is irreplaceable by other metal materials and plays a key role in some applications.

What is the most expensive metal? Join us to explore the world’s top 10 precious metals.

Among all precious metals, gold is one of the rarest, rarest and most valued metals, silver is the same. We can often see them in ornaments, instruments and electronic products.

But does not know that some platinum group metals (platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, palladium, iridium, osmium), they are not well known to us, also within precious metal group.

1. Rhodium

Rhodium is a silver-white, hard metal with high reflectivity, it usually doesn’t form oxides. Even atmospheric oxygen is absorbed by heated rhodium, but it is released during solidification. Rhodium is insoluble in most acids, completely insoluble in nitric acid, slightly soluble in aqua regia.

The content of rhodium elements in the earth’s crust is only one part per billion, scatter in various ores, definitely is the most expensive metal.

Latest price: 2.175.00 USD per Troy Ounce

Main producers: South Africa, Russia, Canada and other countries.

Application: Rhodium is corrosion resistant and has good luster. It is mainly used in the electroplating industry. Electroplate it on other metal surfaces, the coating color is firm, not easy to wear, and has good reflectivity.

2. Platinum

Platinum is thirty times more rare than gold and can only be mined in very few parts of the world. If all the platinum in the world is poured into an Olympic standard swimming pool, its depth is not enough to cover the instep, and gold can fill at least three swimming pools.

Application: Platinum is very stable in nature and will not deteriorate or fade due to wear, it is a good choice for jewelry, It has been regarded as the most expensive metal in the 2000-year history of human use of platinum, and is sought after by the royal family. Besides, platinum is not soluble in any acid or alkali except aqua regia, can be used to make corrosion-resistant chemical equipment. In medicine, it can be used as an anticancer drug.

Main producer: South Africa, Russia, Canada

Latest price: 973.60 USD per Troy Ounce

3. Gold

Because of its luster and durability, gold is the easiest identified precious metal and remains the popular and investment options.

Gold is usually extracted from rocks and placer sand by gold mining equipment and a series of mineral processing activities like crushing, washing, flotation, and gold refining process.

Application: Gold has excellent ductility and corrosion resistance, it can be used not only as an ornament, but also in instrument manufacturing and electronic industry.

Main gold producer: South Africa, America, Australia and China

Latest price: 2463.05 USD per Troy Ounce

4. Ruthenium

Ruthenium, a member of the platinum group, is one of the rarest metals, found in the earth’s crust at only one part per billion. Ruthenium is stable to nature, resistant to corrosion, and popular for its ability to increase hardness and resistance.

Application: Ruthenium is widely used in jewelry, electronics, chemical and other industries.

Main producer: Russia, North and South America

Latest price: 255.00 UDS per Troy Ounce

5. Iridium

Iridium is one of the densest metals in the world, has a very high melting point and excellent corrosion resistance. Iridium is processed from platinum ore and is one of the by-products of nickel.

Application: Mainly used in the manufacture of scientific instruments, thermocouples, resistors, etc. High hardness iron – Iridium alloy and iridium – platinum alloys are commonly used to make nib and platinum jewelry. Due to its extremely high melting point and superior corrosion resistance, iridium is widely used in high-level technology fields such as aerospace technology, pharmaceuticals and the automotive industry.

Main producer: South Africa

Latest price: 520.00 USD per Troy Ounce

6. Osmium

Osmium is the densest metal is known, which can be used to make super hard alloys.

Add a little osmium in platinum, can make a hard and sharp osmium platinum alloy scalpel. Osmium – iridium alloy is hard and wear-resistant, can be used to make bearings for clocks and important instruments and greatly prolong the service life.

Main producer: North and South America, Russia

Latest price: 400.00 USD per Troy Ounce

7. Palladium

Palladium is one of the richest and widely used platinum metals. It is the trading variety of international precious metals spot and futures with platinum, gold and silver.

Palladium is a rare non-renewable resource, is an indispensable key material in the high-tech fields of aerospace, aviation, navigation, weapons and nuclear energy as well as the automobile manufacturing industry.

Applications: Petrochemical industry, automobile manufacturing, chemical industry, electroplating, jewelry, etc.

Main producer: Russia, United States, Canada

Latest price: 910.60 USD per Troy Ounce

8. Rhenium

Rhenium is one of the rarest elements in the earth’s crust, and one of the elements with the highest melting and boiling point. Rhenium is the only refractory material that does not form carbide. Since 1925. it has been actively used in the chemical and electronic industries.

Application: Rhenium can be used in high-efficiency jet engines and rocket engines, which is the largest practical application of rhenium, followed by the catalyst in the chemical industry.

Main producer: Kazakhstan, Chile and America

Latest price: 1290.00 USD per Troy Ounce

9. Silver

Silver, like gold, is a precious metal with a long history of the application. It is a beautiful metal with good ductility and has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity among all metals.

Applications: Silver is often used to make highly sensitive physical instrument components used in various automation devices, rockets, submarines, computers, nuclear devices and communication systems. Also use for jewelry, circuits, batteries, coins, etc.

Main producer：Peru, China, Mexico and Chile

Latest price：28.85 USD per Troy Ounce

10. Indium

Indium is a silver-white, bluish-tinged metal, so soft it can be scratched with a fingernail. Indium has high ductility and malleability, which is mainly used in the manufacture of ITO material (in the liquid crystal display and flat screen), alloy, semiconductor, electric light source and so on.

Main producer：China, South Korea and Japan

Latest price：250.00 USD per Troy Ounce

The preciousness of precious metals is not only because of its scarce reserves in nature, but more importantly because of its unique physical and chemical properties, such as corrosion resistance, mechanical properties, catalytic properties, high-temperature resistance. precious metals are used in areas such as national defense, financial reserves, energy, electronics, aerospace, in addition, in the medical field, precious metals also have important uses, especially in the treatment of cancer. For example, oxaliplatin has significant inhibitory effects on various animal and human tumor cell lines such as colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer.