What is the most expensive metal in the world?
"Rhodium is the most expensive metal in the world. Some think
platinum is but it is not."
The above answer forgets to look at isotopes, and generalizes
metals without taking into account the various rarities occurring
within a particular chemical element. All elements,
includingRhodium, have isotopes which possess properties valuable
to industry, and the rarity of those isotopes increase the value of
a metal over and above the most common isotope markets generally
quote.
Platinum occurs in stable isotopes 190, 192, 194, 195, 196, and
198. The rarest is isotope 190. PT190 makes up 0.014% of all
naturally occurring platinum. Therefore, pure platinum 190 occurs
at something around 1 part per 5-5.5 Trillion. This metal is so
costly and so rare its value can only be estimated. The only
estimate done to date for 1 gram of pure platinum 190 is $32
Million per gram.
For people who want to know how much this is per troy oz.
Convert $32,000,000(31.103) = $995,296,000.00 per troy ounce.