Why Palladium Is Suddenly a More Valuable Metal: QuickTake

Palladium is the most valuable of the four major precious metals, with an acute shortage driving prices to fresh records. A key component in pollution-control devices for cars and trucks, the metal’s price has trebled in three years, bringing it at first level with the price of gold, then lifting it way beyond.

It’s a lustrous white material, one of the six platinum-group metals (along with ruthenium, rhodium, osmium, iridium and platinum itself). About 85% of palladium ends up in catalytic converters in car exhausts, where it helps turn toxic pollutants into less-harmful carbon dioxide and water vapor. It is also used in electronics, dentistry and jewelry. The metal is mined primarily in Russia and South Africa, and mostly extracted as a secondary product from operations that are focused on other metals, such as platinum or nickel.