Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Rhodium

Rhodium is the scarcest traded platinum-group metal, vital for removing nitrogen oxides from petrol exhausts and prone to extreme price spikes.

Precious metals · No. 25

  • EU strategic
  • EU critical 2023
  • US critical 2025
  • India critical 2023
  • HHI 7,004 · highly concentrated
Precious metals · Foundation · Matter

Rhodium lost 77% of its price in three years, from $20,254 an ounce in 2021 to $4,660.

Chart: Illustration: Rhodium

Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Rhodium is a small fraction of the platinum-group metals in Bushveld and Great Dyke reefs and Norilsk nickel ores. It is extracted only as part of mining for platinum.

Three things to know
  1. The whole world mined only about 22.8 tons of rhodium in 2024, less than one-hundredth of gold.
  2. Rhodium has no mines of its own; it is separated from platinum ores late in refining.
  3. The US imported 14,000 kg of rhodium in 2025 but exported only 340 kg.
The journey
  1. 1 Reef oreRhodium a tiny part of PGMs
  2. 2 ConcentrateFloated to a PGM concentrate
  3. 3 MatteSmelted with nickel and copper
  4. 4 Long refiningRhodium separated late in the sequence
  5. 5 ConvertersThree-way catalysts in petrol cars
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