Rhodium

Rhodium has only recently been introduced to the precious metals market as an investment grade retail product that can be bought and sold in the way that physical gold and silver is traded. A member of the platinum group metals, rhodium is a much rarer metal than platinum or palladium. The price of Rhodium varies considerable, and has seen swings up to 10,000 USD / Oz. 1 Ounce Rhodium bars are available for VAT-exempt storage in Switzerland and for worldwide delivery. 

Why You Should Consider Investing in Rhodium

Most investors have heard of physical gold and silver as an investment. However, many fail to consider another one that gives a serious perspective to future investors. This precious metal is called Rhodium and it’s extremely rare. Its unique attributes offer an added value to this metal, making it an option for you to consider.

What is Rhodium?

Rhodium is one of the rarest metals in the world and a newcomer to the physical precious metals investment market. Let’s see what makes this metal so precious.

  • Rhodium is a noble metal, belonging to the platinum group. Other members of this particular group are platinum, palladium, iridium, osmium, and ruthenium. It was discovered in 1803 by the British chemist and physicist, William Hyde Wollaston, in a platinum ore. From all of the noble metals, Rhodium is the rarest in the Earth’s crust and this makes it extremely valuable. It is silvery-white in color, hard, corrosion-resistant, and a chemically inert transition metal.
  • Even though Rhodium is called a metal, its attributes are entirely different from the ones found in metals, such as gold, silver, or platinum. Unlike gold or silver, it is very difficult to turn Rhodium  into coins or ingots. This is because this metal is extremely brittle. If you apply pressure to a Rhodium coin or piece of jewelry, or drop it, it will break like glass. Yet at the same time, Rhodium is also considered to be exceptionally sturdy. 

Price Shifts on Rhodium’s Price

Rhodium is a rare metal and this is apparent in its price. However, the price of this metal varies tremendously. If you take a look at the historical charts of Rhodium's price, you will see that this metal’s price is prone to fluctuations. For a brief period in 2008, Rhodium’s price skyrocketed to above $10,000 per ounce. However, by the end of that year, the price settled below $1,000 per ounce.

Since 2016, Rhodium’s price has been increasingly consistently. It is easy to see that this is a pattern that a potential investor could take advantage of. Each gain is followed by a market pullback. Despite this pullback, the price keeps on increasing, resulting in an increase of 193.92% from August 2016 to April 2019.

What is Affecting Rhodium’s Price

The fluctuation in Rhodium’s price is caused by a combination of the metal’s rarity and the political / economic situations where it is extracted. 

Rhodium is quite complex to mine. It is found with PGM metals, including palladium and platinum. Rhodium is predominantly located in platinum ores and can be extracted from platinum via a complex process. For this reason, there are no mines dedicated exclusively to the extraction of this noble metal. Almost all of the world's Rhodium is located in South Africa and in the Ural Mountains in Russia. World production of Rhodium annually is approximately 30 tones.

The unstable political and economic situations in South Africa and Russia make it easy to see why the price of this metal is variable. The price can be affected by anything - from a strike of the mining syndicate to problems in the electricity supply and even labour disputes.

What is Rhodium Used For?

The primary use of Rhodium is as a catalyst in automotive three-way catalytic converters. It is also used to plate white gold jewelry because it adds shine. It’s also used in sterling silver jewelry for tarnish resistance. 

Buying Rhodium Bars

SwissBullion.eu sell Rhodium bars manufactured by PAMP. Because this metal is so new to precious metals investors, few refineries currently manufacture bars. PAMP manufactures a 1 Ounce Rhodium Bar. Each bar comes with its own serial number and sealed in a certicard. Bars may be purchased for VAT-exempt Swiss storage or for delivery. SwissBullion.eu offers buyback of Rhodium bars at favorable rates to investors using our secure vault storage facility in Zurich.

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