Are you wondering how to invest in precious metals?
If so, one of the first things you need to know are which metals are the most precious of all. That’s why we’ve put together this list of the top ten precious metals — to find out what they are, simply keep reading, so you’ll know what to invest in!
- Ruthenium
This metal is a cousin of platinum, and is often used as a platinum alloy. It’s frequently used in the making of electronics, and has many similar properties to platinum, including durability — it withstands external elements well.
- Rhenium
Rhenium boasts the third highest melting point of all elements, and is often used for making turbine engines.
It’s quite a dense metal, and is often added to superalloys that are nickel-based, to improve their resistance to heat. It’s often a byproduct of copper mining, too.
- Iridium
What is iridium? It’s another relation to platinum — it’s used in electronics, vehicles and medicine too.
It’s only found in South Africa — nowhere else on the planet — and boasts a very high melting point. It also has a nice white sheen, and is incredibly dense.
- Palladium
Palladium is another precious metal, and is often utilized by the automobile industry to reduce emissions, so it’s good for the environment. It absorbs hydrogen, and is heat-resistant and malleable too – it’s good for making jewellery.
- Gold
It might not be the rarest metal of all, but gold is undoubtedly a precious metal with some great qualities including flexibility, durability and of course the popularity of the metal in jewellery. If you’re wondering exactly what it is, you can find out here.
- Platinum
We’ve mentioned a couple of close relations, but now we get into platinum itself.
The metal is resistant to corrosion and highly malleable too. It’s used for items such as dentist equipment, aircraft and weapons, but is probably most often used in jewellery.
- Rhodium
Rhodium has a silver coat and is valued due to its resistance to both corrosion and heat. It’s often used in search lights and mirrors, as well as to finish jewellery — you can find rhodium in Russia, South Africa and Canada.
- Osimium-187
A dense metal, osimium is similar to iridium and shares a high melting point too. It’s ppretty hard and brittle, and is often used in platinum alloys.
- Indium
Indium is processed through mining zinc, copper and iron-ore.
It’s very shiny and malleable too, and turns white in color. One of the softest metals on the planet, it’s often used in the semiconductor industry.
- Scandium
The last precious metal in our list, scandium was discovered in Scandinavia in 1879, and is silvery-white in color. It’s found in rare-earth and uranium deposits, but only extracted from ores in a few mines across the entire planet.
Precious Metals
These are the top ten most precious metals. No longer will you need to wonder “what are precious metals”, as they’re all here — you can begin investing in precious metals if you’d like to!
If there’s more you’d like to know about investing, don’t forget to check out the rest of our posts.
