Why is Rhodium the most expensive metal in the world?|The nation

An ounce of gold costs $ 1.812. Una onza de rodio cuesta $17.600.This is 9.7 times more expensive than gold in September 2021.

Es el metal más caro del mundo, y uno que ha llenado titulares de noticias de robos de vehículos en Estados Unidos.

‘Rodio’ is an increasingly sought and used word on the Internet.This super weird metal fulfills a crucial function that we see in action when we go out every day, but we do not necessarily realize.

Next we explain what Rodio is, why is the most expensive metal in the world and how it can be achieved in Costa Rica.

¿Qué es el rodio?

-Rodio is a silver white metallic element, corrosion resistant and highly reflective.

-The most rare and valuable precious metal in the world is considered.The main use of rhodium is in catalytic converters designed to clean vehicles emissions.

-Rodio's biggest producer is South Africa.

-There is no futures market for Rhodium, but there are some bags that sell the element, including Johnson Matthey in Hong Kong.(Eye: A futures market are purchase or sale contracts, negotiated in stock markets, of certain materials on a future date, agreing in the present the price, the amount and an expiration date)

Con esos cuatro puntos lo resume el sitio de intercambio y seguimiento de precios de metales y otros materiales, Trading Economics.

The rhodium appears in the periodic table of the elements we study at school.These are your scientific data:

--Símbolo: Rh

--Número atómico: 45 (número de protones en su núcleo)

--Densidad: 12,41 gramos por centímetro cúbico

--Fase a temperatura normal: sólido

--Temperatura de derretimiento: 1.964 degrees Celsius

--Temperatura de ebullición: 3.695 degrees Celsius

It was discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston, a short time after discovering the Paladino element.

As we saw, it is a hard metal of transition, it is extremely rare, it is white-planted and is resistant to corrosion.It looks like this in the form of beating:

The most common use of rhodium on the planet-a 80%-off according to the New York Times-are the catalysts of internal combustion cars.The catalyst is a device that is part of the vehicle's exhaust system, and its main function is to reduce the contamination produced by expelling the exhaust gases abroad.

The majority of catalysts (also called catalytic converters) of the world have three precious metals in their composition: Platinum (Platinum), Paladio (Palladium) and Rodio (Rhodium). Pero el rodio es, “de lejos”, el que tiene la mayor actividad en cuanto a remover óxido nitroso del escape, según explica la Live Science.

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A coating of these metals is impregnated with a ceramic panel. Cuando los gases nocivos entran en contacto con los metales, reaccionan y generan gases nobles o inertes, que resultan menos contaminantes cuando llegan a la atmósfera (se reduce el óxido nitroso).That is, there is a reduction of pollution when the exhaust system works properly.

“Los catalizadores están instalados en prácticamente todos los vehículos y camiones de gasolina que se han vendido en Estados Unidos desde 1975”, apunta el New York Times.

Other uses and data:

-As Rodio is very bright and its brightness is hardly lost, it is also a metal used in jewelry, mirrors and reflectors.

-It is also found, in Rhodium-Platino alloy, in medical articles such as heart pacemakers.

-In fact, the rhodium is rarely used alone.It is usually used as alloy with other metals.

--It is resistant to almost all acids.

--Aunque se le considera como un metal raro, el rodio no forma arte de la categoría de “tierras raras”, el conjunto de 17 metales que proceden mayoritariamente de China (más del 90%) y que son esenciales para una serie de productos tecnológicos.

Suministro limitado, alza en su precio (y en sus robos)

Sudáfrica produce aproximadamente el 80% de la generación mundial de rodio, pero esta producción se ha visto afectada por la pandemia. En parte, como apunta Hiroko Tabuchi en este artículo de Clima en el New York Times, esto ha disparado los precios del rodio, en un momento en el cual la demanda de la industria automovilística por las medidas antipolución se ha acentuado en todo el mundo (sobre todo en Europa y China).

Rhodium is a platinum or nickel extraction by -product, that is, there are no rhodium mines.

Rodio's world production, between 2018 and 2020, was translated to about 26 tons per year (more than $ 19.000 million).

Apart from South Africa, countries like Russia produce it to a lesser extent.

Let's analyze its market value:

Una onza (28,3 gramos) de oro, según el sitio especializado Mining.com, se comerciaba en $1.812,72 este 31 de agosto.

El mismo día, una onza de rodio se transaba en $17.600.00.

Since 2016, the price of rhodium has increased 3.000%.In 2021, Rodio's ounce has exceeded $ 20.000 On some occasions and it was located at $ 29.500.The metal has had a fluctuation of several thousand dollars in eight months, but its lowest price has been $ 17.000.

Tomando en cuenta la diferencia entre inicios de enero e inicios de setiembre, el aumento de precio del rodio ha sido de 3,53% (+$600 en el año).

This high price of the most expensive metal in the world has had an impact on higher levels of crime in countries such as the United States, where cities like Wichita (Kansas), San José (California), New York (New York), ST.Louis (Missouri), and Los Angeles (California) report unusual increases in catalyst robberies in vehicles.This during pandemic.

In St.Louis, for example, there were 50 catalyst robberies in 2019 and 420 in 2020.

¿Cómo se consigue rodio en Costa Rica?

As we saw, there is Rhodium in vehicle catalysts.It is very likely that, if you have an internal combustion vehicle, it has a combination of paladium, platinum and rhodium in the catalyst.But the best thing you can do is let it make your mission in the catalyst.

You can also find surroundings in jewelry.Some known jewelry stores can sell rhodium alhajas.Just ask or explore online catalogs.Depending on the price, they may be very small amounts of Rodio.

The rhodium market is very limited.The buying queen, in general, is the global automotive industry.It is not common to trade on linges of solid rhodium.