Rare, beautiful and uniquely beautiful makes precious metals so precious and valuable. The Platinum group metals are used in medical devices and implanted in the body for this reason. Stent lean wires and heart electrodes are also made of alloys of platinum and iridium due to their biocompatibility as well as their electrical conductive property. Medical devices and electronics like pace makers, defibrillators, MRI, and CAT scan machines all require gold silver, platinum and other platinum group metals to function. Precious metals are not only chemically inert but have catalytic properties as well. This has led to its earlier uses as fertilizer production then petrol chemical processing and now catalytic converters used to reduce emissions from industrial combustion processes as well as automotive exhaust. Catalytic converters are well known to containing platinum that little realize that there are over 20 separate components in an average car that uses precious metals.
The high temperature strength and oxidation resistance make precious metals so valuable and so many electrical applications and components from spark plugs to electrical switches. Precious metals are incorporated in almost all consumer electronic including cellphones, computers and flat screen TV. The chemical property of these precious metals are also needed for a host of pharmaceutical products including a wide variety of anti-cancer drugs which are dependent on platinum. The highly develop Science and Technology of recovery and refining of precious metals ensure that these rare and important metals are reclaimed and recycled for new applications throughout the ages.
