Precious metals are rare metallic chemical elements of high economic values. Chemically, the precious metals are less reactive than most elements. they have high luster and high electrical conductivity. Historically, precious metals were important as currency, but are now regarded mainly as investment and industrial commodities.

The precious metals include

• Ruthenium
• Rhodium
• Palladium
• Silver
• Osmium
• Iridium
• Gold
• Platinum

Importance of Precious Metal

Gold and silver are the best known precious metals. While both have industrial uses, they are better known for their uses in art, jewelry, and coinage. Platinum is the most widely traded of other precious metals. Plutonium and uranium could also be considered precious metals.

The demand for precious metals is driven not only by their practical use, but also by their role as investments and a store of value.

The markets for these metals are exceedingly complex and distorted from normal supply and demand laws by several interrelated factors. These include:

• All the precious metals are used in the manufacture of jewelry, the demand for which is very much dependent upon the vagaries of fashion and taste.
• Gold has a direct link with the monetary system and the most precious metal dealers are inclined to believe in a close connection between the gold price and the prices of other precious metals.  This is justified to some extent by their common characteristics of scarcity, uses, easy storage, similar origin (in most cases), and historical association.
• Most precious metals are by-products or co-products of the manufacture of other, less rare metals. Thus, supply and demand rules for the different elements may not coincide and may make production of a particular precious metal uneconomical during those time when the less rare metal is in over-supply, temporarily or permanently.
• Industrial uses for precious metals involve some 86% of manufactured products even though they have been mostly used as components in highly sophisticated areas of technology or expensive jewelry, where the value of the metal in the equipment or system might be insignificant. A manufacturer is often forced to buy the metal at almost any price because of its unique and unsubstitutable properties. Furthermore, when continuity of supply and quality are important to the industrial consumers of such precious metals, the consumers often pay higher prices than the free market price.
• Historically, precious metals have demonstrated an ability to retain their value even in periods of extreme economic dislocation. Many investors use precious metals as an investment hedge during times of economic uncertainty.
• Precious metals are now being actively and aggressively researched for their potential medical benefits. Laurence Gardner has provided considerably evidence in this regard by showing that these metals in their Monoatomic Elements, ORME, state are capable of amazing and astounding actions. [Laurence Gardner, Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark; Amazing Revelations on the Incredible Power of Gold, HarperCollins, London, 2003]

The precious metals are also becoming very prominent in two other major usage areas:

• In energy generating fuel cells
• In the treatment of a large number of ailments in medicine

The latter has generated a great deal of interest as it has become evident that the precious elements are integral to health, and provide unique healing characteristics. The former is important in that the technology of fuel cells has progressed rapidly from a scientific or engineering viewpoint, but has been heavily constrained by the expense of the precious metals essential to fuel cell operation.