Forget Gold and Platinum! Give Your Sweetie Iridium this Valentine’s Day
If you want to send your sweetie over the moon this Valentine’s Day then forget a gold or platinum ring. Go for iridium instead.
By Greg Greenberg
If you want to send your sweetie over the moon this Valentine’s Day then forget a gold or platinum ring. Go for iridium instead.
Iridium is a rare metal primarily used in components for space travel. But Smithson Tennant, a division of engineered materials supplier American Elements, has developed the technology to produce iridium jewellery for the public for the first time. Iridium melts at such a high temperature that the metal was never considered for accessories before.
“We kind of did it as a side thing for fun, just to let the technology world know we had it, but then Elon Musk got one. And Don Henley of the Eagles got one, and all of a sudden we said maybe we should do a little more with these than simply make them for fun and friends,” says Michael Silver, CEO of American Elements.
Silver adds that the rings do not tarnish and have a higher lustre than gold, silver and platinum. And because iridium is also traded on the commodities market - around US$700 an ounce at last check - it makes for a smart precious metals investment as well, according to Silver.
“The moment these rings become actual jewellery pieces then you are going to see the price of iridium go up dramatically because iridium is 10 times rarer than gold and platinum,” says Silver.
