Iridium cedes the crown of densest of all metals to its neighbor on the periodic table, osmium, which edges it out by just 1/1000th of a percent - effectively a tie. The two are also in a statistical dead heat in terms of that other crown; the rarest of all stable precious metals. Unlike osmium’s as-yet tepid demand and name recognition, however, iridium takes a clear lead with a slew of uses in various hi-tech applications. All of these strain the meager annual output which is estimated at just 5-10 tons per annum.

With this situation it is not surprising to find that the price of the metal to be high. While it was never cheap, the spot price quadrupled when Covid hit and has been hovering at around $6,000/oz ever since. For it to retreat to its pre-pandemic trading ranges all those traditional industrial suppliers would need to pare back their buy orders and hope that the nascent bullion and jewelry interest in this metal fizzles out.

Fat chance.