Keep reading to find out the countries that produce the most rhodium in the world. What is rhodium and what is it for? It is a very interesting topic and now Insider Monkey has published an article about it. Rhodium (Rh) is a metal element occurring in only one isotope – the 103Rh isotope and usually found as an alloy of similar metals, or alone.
Rhodium is a silver colored metal, but named after rose(rodon in Greek), because it was first obtained from chloride salts which remained after palladium extraction from platinum where it was reddish in color. Rhodium belongs to the platinum group of precious metals (or short PGM). The platinum metal group consists of six metal elements: rhodium, palladium, platinum, iridium, ruthenium and osmium. They are all close to each other in the periodic table of elements and are very similar in their characteristics. These metals are referred to as precious metals because they are very stable and resistant elements to corrosion and oxidation, and since they are durable and very resistant they are much valued. They are very rare elements in nature, rhodium being one of the rarest, which adds to its high value. Rhodium also has a high melting temperature, and is very hard and durable.
Now without a further ado let’s see what Insider Monkey has investigated for us. We have picked three countries from their list. The first one is Finland. Finland plays an important role in the world’s (and especially Europe’s) mining industry. There are over 40 active mines in Finland, and also several big deposits of the platinum group of metals. The most potential areas for extracting those minerals are northern parts of the country, which have recently developed a metwork of mining activties. Apart from those, Finland’s production of the platinum group of metals has been in a skight decrease since 2014. The next one is Botswana. Botswana is a country rich in precious ores and elements. Its most important mining branch is diamond production, and represents the 26% of diamond production in the World. Apart from diamond, Botswana produces copper, gold nickel, salt, silver and platinum group of metals. The production of the platinum group of metals in Botswana is however rapidly decreasing.
For any further interesting information read Insider Monkey’s article about 8 countries that produce the most rhodium in the world.
