What is Rhodium used for and what are the countries that produce the most rhodium in the world? Stick with me to find out.
Rhodium (Rh) is a rare metal element mostly used in a car industry, but threatening to take over the jewelry industry as well. It is similar to chrome, but it is a lot more sparkly and, because of its silvery-white color it is very classy and the demand for it is pretty amazing. But it is also rather expensive because it is very rare in nature, but also very hard to modify and work with.
But, if it is that expensive, why are there so many people obsessed with it? First of all, yellow gold is not that fashionable anymore and the white gold and silver came to the throne a long time ago. Although silver is a lot more expensive, when it comes to some special event such as engagement or wedding, people don’t really care about the price. And there is a big difference between the white gold and silver that can be seen without any problem.
But the greatest percentage of rhodium is used in the car industry, around 90% because of its ability to reduce the emission of harmful gases. Besides that, it is also used in the optical instruments making the industry, glass industry, and the nuclear reactors.
So what makes the rhodium that special? First of all, it has the high melting temperature. More importantly, it belongs to the PGM (or the platinum group of precious metals) along with ruthenium, platinum, palladium, osmium, and iridium. This group of elements is very stable and resistant to corrosion and oxidation, which makes them very valuable in every industry and its value jumped by 32% from 2016 to 2017.
These 8 countries that produce the most rhodium in the world recognized its value from the very beginning and they can easily build an empire just from it and grow its GDP based only on it. To see the list of them and how much rhodium they produce on average, click on 8 countries that produce the most rhodium in the world.
