Tellurium is one of those metals which actually ought to be traded in bullion form. Well, if you want to be technical, sure, it’s not exactly a full member of the metals family but it’s quite rare. Rarer than gold, actually. And yet, a pound of the stuff can go for as little as $100 in the lower grades of purity. That, of course, is explained purely due to demand. Not a lot of uses have been found for this element so what little there is of it goes for cheap.

That hasn’t stopped some entrepeneurs from taking notice though. Google “tellurium investing” and you get tens of thousands of hits. We can imagine a small legion of armchair prospectors quietly amassing piles of shiny tellurium bricks that they’ll be able to sell with handsome payoffs just as soon as the market finally wakes up. It may never happen but, hey, hope springs eternal!