Precious Metals Today

At the beginning of 2008, the price of gold reached the previous record high of 1980, the first time this had occurred since that time. The price may ultimately go much higher. This development is the result of high investor demand, ...

Silver is a more commonly used industrial metal than gold, but as far as prices go, it is only a follower of the yellow metal. However, as a result of the smaller market depth, price swings are as a rule much greater than those for gold.

95% of all products, say the experts, either contain platinum metals or at least come into contact with them during manufacture. Platinum, the second most expensive platinum metal after rhodium and the second most common after palladium, plays a special role here.

Though it is the most common platinum metal, only 230 tons of palladium are newly mined each year. Despite this, and despite the fact that catalytic converters containing palladium are increasingly found in automobiles, the price of the metal does not fluctuate a great deal.

Speculators have shown relatively little interest in the so-called “small” platinum metals, of which only between 4 tons a year (iridium) and 30 tons a year (ruthenium) are mined. In this case, rare does not necessarily mean expensive. Only rhodium is an exception.