# Caesium: Trading

The odd business of renting out drilling brine

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/trading/

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)

## Other sections

- [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/index.md)
- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/correlation/index.md)
- [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/extraction/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/production/index.md)
- [Stocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/stocks/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/cycles/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/movement/index.md)
- [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/criticality/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cesium/links/index.md)