Caesium: Trading
The odd business of renting out drilling brine
What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.There is no exchange contract, benchmark or price-reporting assessment for cesium. Supply is controlled by a few vertically integrated firms that mine, refine and sell salts direct to users. The formate business is unusual. Brines are rented to oil and gas operators for a well and then taken back for reprocessing. This makes the supplier part service company, part mineral producer. Laboratory buyers pay catalogue prices per gram.
Where it is bought (buyers)
- Catalyst makers in the US, Europe and Asia buy carbonate and hydroxide
- Oil and gas operators rent cesium formate for high-pressure, high-temperature wells
- X-ray panel makers buy cesium iodide; labs buy small lots
Where it is sold (sellers)
- Sinomine sells formate (rental) and salts from Canada and China
- Refined compounds come from China and Germany (USGS)
- Bikita tailings concentrate is shipped to China
Exchanges and benchmarks
| Venue | Contract | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| None | No exchange contract | Cesium metal is not traded in commercial quantities, so no market price exists (USGS); no Indian venue lists it |
Contract types
- Rental contracts for formate brine, with return and reprocessing
- Supply contracts for catalyst-grade salts
- Catalogue sales of gram to kilogram lots
Top trading houses
- None prominent; supply is controlled by producers
How prices are discovered
- Supplier catalogue prices summarised by USGS
- Producer disclosures (Sinomine)