Behold rhenium! This is not only the least heard about precious metal but possibly the rarest element on the Earth’s surface too. In recent years, the United States has taken the lead in the mining of rhenium with production doubling in the past decade. The USA is now responsible for producing over half of the world’s supply (China and Chile picking up much of the remainder). If that puts a smile on the global industries that depend on this scarce resource then they’re surely bound to be disappointed to learn that the U.S.’s own appetite is handily outstripping supply. This means that all that output is reserved for domestic consumption and there’s still demand left over so that the country is still competing with the rest of the world on the open market for the trickle of foreign-sourced rhenium left.

What’s driving all this demand? That would be planes. Every jet engine makes use of this precious resource due to the metal’s exceptional resistance to corrosion and high temperatures - a characteristic shared by all precious metals of the so-called Platinum Group. Rhenium is favored simply because it remains the cheapest to acquire.

For how much longer is an interesting question though. The entire output of rhenium on an annual basis is still a trivial 50ish tons. That’s equivalent to a dozen 55-gallon drums; something that can easily fit in your garage! Considering that the annual output of gold currently sits at over 3,000 tons, and paired with the very poor outlook for significantly increasing production of rhenium from current figures, it’s unreasonable to expect any conclusion other than this metal’s steady cost increase going forward. It is, in fact, not unreasonable to expect it to eventually overtake even the price point of platinum and palladium, given that these two are four times more abundant.

So enjoy buying your grams of rhenium at these prices while you can!