What Makes a Metal ‘Precious?’

According to the Royal Society of Chemistry, there are 94 metals. Of them all, gold is perhaps the most well-known. It can be found on the periodic table with the symbol “Au.” However, unlike most of the metals listed on the periodic table, gold is considered a “precious” metal.

Gold is one of the eight precious metals. The other seven precious metals are silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium. Most metals don’t make the cut, including well-known ones like bronze, steel and iron.

So why are some metals considered precious while others aren’t? These are some of the factors that all precious metals have in common.

Economic value

Every precious metal has significant economic value which makes them more desirable than other resources. The Oxford Dictionary defines precious as something that is “of great value,” and precious metals derive intrinsic value in part due to their economic usefulness.

For instance, gold is used in products and services like jewelry, automobiles, smartphones and dentistry. Platinum is also used in jewelry and automobiles. You can also find that precious metal in jet engine fuel nozzles and medical devices. Silver has commercial applications ranging from solar photovoltaic cells and EVs to aerospace and electronics

Many industries rely on precious metals to provide goods and services. However, some metals like steel and copper also provide economic value despite not being considered precious. Economic value is only one of the components that all precious metals have in common.

While each precious metal holds intrinsic value, gold is the most valuable. That’s because gold — in addition to its manifold industrial application — is an effective hedge against inflation, providing it with economic value beyond commercial demand. The price of gold increases as fiat currencies lose their purchasing power. As a result, some investors use gold and other precious metals to protect their wealth instead of relying on paper money.

Rarity

Precious metals aren’t only precious because of their economic impact. These metals are quite rare, and that scarcity makes them more valuable. Prices can reach astonishing levels for rare items, such as a limited Honus Wagner T206 baseball card that sold for $7.25 million in 2022.

Gold’s not going to reach $7.25 million per troy ounce. However, this example underscores how some assets gain value based on their rarity. Rarity — or the lack of it — is one of the reasons that copper isn’t a precious metal. Copper makes up roughly 50 parts per million (ppm) in the Earth’s crust. Meanwhile, gold only makes up 0.004 ppm in the Earth’s crust.

Rarity creates a meaningful gap between the two metals. Gold is 12,500 times rarer than copper, which explains why it is more valuable. Copper may become more rare in the future since it’s an important component of EVs and has a wide-range of industrial applications. However, it can take many years before copper becomes a rare metal.

Naturally occurring

Gold is gold — you can’t make it in a lab. This distinction applies to all precious metals, and it’s another separator between precious metals and the rest. That’s why steel, despite its many uses, is not a precious metal.

Steel is not a naturally occurring metal. It requires iron and carbon in order to be produced. Steel is therefore an alloy between two naturally occurring elements: iron and carbon.

It’s very difficult and expensive to create naturally occurring metals in labs. In most cases, people have to wait for new discoveries or metals to be produced naturally to increase supply.

Civilizations can proactively increase their steel reserves, but they must find gold naturally to increase gold reserves. Returning to copper, the industrial metal is naturally occurring. However, due to its abundance, it isn’t considered precious.

Chemically inert

All precious metals are chemically inert, which means they cannot be changed by the environment. For instance, zinc is not a precious metal because it reacts with hydrochloric acid. That reaction creates zinc chloride and hydrogen gas.

Precious metals like gold and silver cannot react and bond with other metals. Once gold is gold, it will always remain as such. And while some gases like hydrogen and nitrogen are chemically inert, they are not metals and therefore not considered precious.

Why precious metals present an opportunity for investors

Investors look for assets that appreciate over time. While stocks and real estate have gained value over the years, gold has delivered positive returns for millennia. The stocks of big tech companies, for example, can eventually lose momentum and generate less enticing returns for investors. Real estate’s value can also fluctuate based on a property’s location, macroeconomic indicators and other factors.

On the other hand, precious metals like gold can gain value even when stocks and real estate enter corrections. The main catalysts for gold are rising inflation, lower interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty. Because of that, precious metals are able to rally during a shaky economy — something few asset classes are capable of doing. Furthermore, stocks and gold don’t have correlated returns, meaning the precious metal can perform well during bull and bear markets for stocks.

Additionally, precious metals can be more alluring to those nearing or entering retirement because they provide a means of portfolio stability. While every investment has its own set of risks, precious metals are the most time-tested assets available.

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