Aluminum is the most abundant and cheapest metal on the planet.
Silver: The least costly of the precious-metal group, silver is also very malleable, ductile, and corrosion resistant. Because it is not attacked by alkaline solutions, it is used to contain caustic soda and potash in all concentrations. Silver has the highest thermal and electrical conductivity of all metals.
The rarest metal on earth is actually francium, but because this unstable element has a half life of a mere 22 minutes, it has no practical use.
If translated into numbers, platinum—for all of its known deposits—is considerably more rare than gold and is the rarest metal of all. And it is, truly, a gift from the heavens.
In terms of abundance in the Earth's crust, the rarest metals are: gold, platinum, osmium, iridium, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, tellurium and rhenium.
Rhodium metal is lustrous and silvery white. Rhodium has a higher melting point and lower density than platinum. It has a high reflectance and is hard and durable. Upon heating it turns to the oxide when red and at higher temperatures turns back to the element.
Rare. The abundance of tungsten in the Earth's crust is thought to be about 1.5 parts per million. Tungsten or Wolfram is considered to be one of the more rare elements.
"Platinum and Palladium Are 30 Times Rarer Than Gold."
Tungsten, which is Swedish for "heavy stone," is the strongest metal in the world. It was identified as a new element in 1781. It is commonly used to make bullets and missiles, metal evaporation work, manufacturing of paints, creating electron and Television tubes, and making glass to metal seals.
In 2021, estimates of the total proven world reserves of PGMs were 69,910 tonnes or 2.2 billion troy ounces and are located mostly in South Africa.
Platinum is the purest metal. Platinum is the only precious metal used in fine jewelry that can be 95% pure. Small amounts of iridium and ruthenium (a metal from the platinum family) are commonly added to platinum. The stamp will read PLAT , PT or 950.
Platinum, with its beautiful white luster, is the purest of all the precious metals used for fine jewelry.
Gold is the metal that we'll likely fall back on when other forms of currency don't work. This means that gold will always have value in tough, as well as good, economic times.
A platinum deficit of 303 000 oz is forecast this year, and WPIC research estimates that this could herald a period of sustained deficits, with a deficit of 81 000 oz in 2024 deepening in 2025 and continuing to grow towards one-million ounces by 2027.
The fours categories are called tiers and they are Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
Therefore, Cesium is the softest metal.
An alloy of chromium, cobalt and nickel (CrCoNi) is the toughest material ever tested, and its characteristics could make it useful in the construction of aircraft or spacecraft.
Currently palladium is the metal used in petrol vehicle catalytic converters, with about 2-7 grams per unit, depending on the vehicle in question.
Palladium is regarded as of low toxicity, being poorly adsorbed by the body when ingested. It may cause skin, eye or respiratory tract irritation, may cause skin sensitisation. Liquid may cause burns to skin and eyes.
In fact, computer parts contain the most gold. It is possible to recover gold from computer boards; it is also possible to extract gold from motherboards, integrated circuits, contacts, pins and printed circuit boards. And how is gold recovered from a computer?
The only substance on Earth that can scratch a diamond is another diamond. However, if you take your trusted hammer and strike a diamond, it will easily chip or crack. It is not indestructible and neither is Tungsten carbide. Gold on the other hand is known as a “softer metal”.
Having the highest melting point of any known metal, at 6192°F, obviously tungsten would be very difficult to melt. In theory, anything can be melted if you apply enough heat. However, for commercial purposes, the high tungsten melting point makes liquid tungsten a virtually impossible proposition.