118 elements make up the periodic table of all known elements. These range from Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe to short lived elements created using particle accelerators and lasting only fractions of a second before decaying into other elements. The periodic table is further split into groups such as the noble gasses and noble metals which are both known for their stability and low chemical reactivity.

The noble metals group gives us the precious metals that we deal with. These metals are often quite rare and found only in limited quantities in the Earth’s crust. Very few sites around the world have sufficient quantities to allow commercial extraction of these metals which contributes to their value. The precious metals as they are more commonly known are useful for a wide range of applications some of which are not that well known. This series will shed some light on the versatility of precious metals which makes them so useful to modern industry.

Check back next week for Episode 2