by Yihui Xie
Thanks to the boom in artificial intelligence, an ultra-rare element you’ve probably never heard of is one of this year’s best-performing raw materials.
Ruthenium, a silvery gray mineral, has eclipsed the headline-grabbing rallies in other commodities like gold and silver by nearly doubling in price over the past year to $800 an ounce, according to metals refiner Johnson Matthey Plc. That matches its peak in 2021 and isn’t far off the all-time high of $870 hit 18 years ago.
The platinum group metal is prized for its exceptional hardness, and versatility across electronics, energy storage, and chemicals manufacturing. But it’s the AI revolution — particularly in hard disks — that’s driven recent gains, according to SFA (Oxford) Ltd., a critical minerals consultancy.
“As AI rolls out, as data storage requirements increase, you need a technology which is still cheap, cost-effective and can store large quantities of data,” said analyst Sandeep Kaler. Technology that leans on other elements is still very expensive, which means demand for ruthenium will keep rising unless cheaper alternatives can be found, she said.
The metal is very hard to come by, and it’s not traded on any exchanges. Traders are scrambling for any supplies they can get, and even major buyers are having trouble sourcing ruthenium, according to two traders who asked not to be named as the information isn’t public.
Dwindling production is likely to provide further support to prices. Annual supply of the mineral, which is mostly derived as a byproduct of platinum, was just 30 tons last year, and is expected to fall due to a lack of investment after many lean years for prices, said Kaler. The market is likely to tip into a deficit next year, where demand outstrips supply, she said.
But the amounts used are minuscule. In hard disk drives, ruthenium allows for greater density of data and appears as a film less than a nanometer thick.
Growth in cloud computing is set to raise hard disk sales by 16% this year, according to figures from International Data Corp. cited by Bloomberg Intelligence, which will in turn fuel ruthenium consumption.
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