Precious Metals

From IntFX

A rare metallic chemical element of high economic value. Precious metals are usually less chemically reactive than most elements, have high luster, are softer or more ductile, and have higher melting points than other metals.

Precious metals include Gold, Silver, Platinum Group Metals: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium and platinum. Rhenium is a precious metal that is not part of the platinum group or one of the traditional precious metals.

Aluminium used to be classified a precious metal as it used to be very difficult to extract from its various ores. The little available pure aluminium which had been discovered (or refined at great cost) more valuable than gold. Bars of aluminium were exhibited alongside the French crown jewels at the Exposition Universelle of 1855, and Napoleon III was said to have reserved a set of aluminium dinner plates for his most honored guests. The invention of the Hall-Héroult process in 1886 caused the high price of aluminium to permanently collapse and the metal is now considered a base metal.

Rhodium is usually the most expensive precious metal, though it is sometimes surpassed by rhenium, depending on the market.

Another definition of precious metals is that their value surpasses US$1/oz. Nickel was fleetingly considered a precious metal by traders during 2007.