Why Are These Metals: Rhodium, Palladium, Iridium, Ruthenium & Osmium Traded? What Are They Exactly?
What are the metals listed in the question? Are they naturally forming metals, meaning they are on the table of elements? which are and which are not and why?
I know that Palladium can replace Platinum, depending on price, in the use of catalytic converters (but what, exactly, do auto makers DO with either)?
So, what makes each of these valuable commodities? Why are investors concerned with them?
Do any of them have anything to do with the global warming scare? How?
Where are they mined?
China’s gold mining is enormous this past year. Will that glut the market? Do you know that China is mass producing cars, but will have high emissions standards to draw in the 2008 Olympics? With all their coal burning, how could they clean it all up? and, they will start to offer no money down auto financing! How interesting!
And how, precisely, does the value of the US dollar affect the price of all of these metals?
Is the world going crazy for metals due to the oil crisis? How?
Tagged with: Iridium • Metals • Ruthenium
Filed under: Commodity Trading
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Rhodium has a high melting point and doesn’t oxidize easily. It is also a good electrical conductor so it’s used in a lot of electrical device like spark plugs and thermocouples.
Palladium is softer and has a lower melting point and also doesn’t normally oxidize but it’s got mad love for hydrogen. It can bond with up to 900 times it’s own mass with hydrogen. They use it as a means to temporarily absorb gases with hydrogen in them to be further processed into less harmful gases.
Iridium is used similarly to Rhodium. It has a high melting temperature and is a good conductor so it is often used in electrical contacts. It’s also the most corrosion-resistant element known. a.k.a. inert.
Osmium & Ruthenium are used mostly in alloys as a hardener. Usually with Platinum and other similar metals like the ones you are asking about. All these metals are of the Platinum family and are very near each other on the periodic table. They are usually found alloyed with other metals usually anywhere that you’d find nickel, copper or platinum.
Metals are always going to be in demand. They all have different characteristics that are going to be useful to somebody somewhere.