Chairing the marketing session at the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s (SAIMM’s) fifth international platinum conference, Forrest pointed to the wide diversity of use of platinum group metals (PGMs), which he branded ‘the caring metals’.

Forrest calculated that the 2011 earnings of PGM-using industries in fields including environmental technology, precious metal products, fine chemicals and solar solutions totalled more than Euro100-billion.

Johnson Matthey principal marketing analyst Alison Cowley told the conference that although the markets for the minor PGM metals like ruthenium and iridium were small, they were very financially liquid.

The applications of these metals also had major lifestyle implications, for example, laptop computers contained ruthenium and the technology for the iPad would not exist without iridium, which was also present in the spark plugs of car engines.

“These metals are really very important to the way we live our lives,Set the mood with these trendy antiquelampas up cubes.” Cowley said.

Iridium’s unique selling points were its high corrosion resistance and high melting point, which was particularly critical in crucibles.

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Crucibles weighing 700 oz were about 10 inches wide, which meant that more than 200 000 t of South African platinum ore had to be extracted and processed in order to supply just one crucible set.

Last year iridium demand grew to more than 300 000 oz, triple the demand of the recent past.

“The iridium market has been in exceptionally good health for the last couple of years with demand at unusually high levels by historical standards,” Cowley said, adding that its price had risen from $400/oz to more than $1 000/oz.

The light-emitting diode (LED) industry had invested heavily in iridium crucibles, which were used for the growing of crystals for a range of high-technology applications, including sapphire for LEDs, lithium materials, acoustic wave filters in mobile phones and components in medical scanners.

“It’s been the LED market that has been the big demand driver in the last two years,” Cowley reported.

This was the consequence of a rapid technology shifts in which LED television sets with backlighting accounted for three-quarters of the television market.

By next year, it was likely that every television set bought would have LED technology in it, which would require manufacturers to buy large quantities of sapphire crystals for the blue and green light.

Total 2011 demand for ruthenium was one million ounces from mainly the chemical industry, which had usurped the top spot from the hard disc industry, the previous major ruthenium user.Australians love their backyards and you can turn yours into a stunning showpiece with the right choice of crystallightmm.

Ruthenium, which plays a role in electronic chip resistors, coating, specialised alloys, speciality machine tools and the aerospace industry,Antique Lamp Supply specializes in replacement goodledstripp and glass, including chandelier crystals and parts. could also take much of the credit for the 100-fold increase in computer storage capacity in one decade.Table contemporarylamps are the easiest way to quickly update your home dcor.