Rhodium price today โ XRH
Rhodium chart
About Rhodium
Rhodium (Rh) is the rarest and most expensive of the precious metals traded on the spot market. It is a silvery-white member of the platinum-group metals, discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston. Annual mine production is only around 30 tonnes worldwide, almost entirely as a by-product of platinum and nickel mining in South Africa and Russia.
More than 80% of demand comes from the automotive sector, where rhodium is essential in three-way catalytic converters for reducing nitrogen-oxide (NOx) emissions. Its scarcity and the lack of substitutes make rhodium prices extremely volatile โ they have multiplied many times over short periods.
Rhodium is brittle and is not used for solid jewelry; instead, a thin rhodium electroplate layer is applied to white-gold and silver pieces to give them a bright, tarnish-resistant finish. See the live rhodium spot and compare with platinum and palladium.
Main uses
- Three-way catalytic converters (largest demand)
- Rhodium plating on white-gold and silver jewelry
- Glass manufacturing (LCD/TFT glass, fiberglass bushings)
- Chemical industry as a catalyst
- Investment bars and sponge (limited liquidity)
Rhodium is traded and plated almost exclusively as fine 999 (99.9%). Because the metal is too brittle to alloy for jewelry, there are no lower jewelry karats โ solid rhodium is virtually never sold as jewelry.