What Are Precious Metals?

What Are Precious Metals?

Precious metals are metals with a high value because they are rare and/or used in a lot of industrial goods and/or are used a lot in investing and/or consumer goods.

Phew!

There are several precious metals. Silver is obviously the one that many investors are concerned about, but gold, platinum and palladium are three others which are considered precious metals by investors, industrialists and consumers. Once upon a time, aluminum was considered a precious metal because it was almost impossible to extract, but thanks to modern methods, it’s easy to extract and thus is very common. Two other minerals that are rare are bismuth and tellurium, but because they aren’t used for anything, they aren’t considered precious.

Precious metals share a number of characteristics:

• They have been historically used in determining value-currency, ‘treasure’, wealth, jewellery, etc.
• They are less chemically reactive than other elements, making them easier to find pure
• They are softer and more malleable than other metals
• They have higher melting points than other metals, making them harder to damage
• They are rare

These metals are often used for investing and consumer goods, but they can also be found in things like medicine so while they are rare, they are still widely used and that drives up their price.

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