Terms like precious metals, rare earth elements, rare metals, minor metals, specialty metals etc. are used throughout reports leaving many people confused about what they actually mean. The term “Technology Metals” is, admittedly, loosely defined as well. Time for some definitions:

Precious Metals (8 metals):

• Ag – Silver
• Au – Gold
• Pt – Platinum
• Pd – Palladium
• Rh – Rhodium
• Ru – Ruthenium
• Ir – Iridium
• Os – Osmium

Rare Earths Elements (17 metals):

• Ce – Cerium
• Dy – Dysprosium
• Er – Erbium
• Eu – Europium
• Gd – Gadolinium
• Ho – Holmium
• La – Lanthanum
• Lu – Lutetium
• Nd – Neodymium
• Pr – Praseodymium
• Pm – Promethium
• Sm – Samarium
• Sc – Scandium
• Tb – Terbium
• Tm – Thulium
• Yb – Ytterbium
• Y – Yttrium

I recommend this very detailed blog by Mike Albrecht (unrelated) on the difference between rare earth elements, and rare metals.

Strategic Metals (undefined)

This is the group of metals that, other than the first two, isn’t clearly defined. Strategic metals in the context of Metal Megatrends are metals driving technology on a larger scale. So this group is somewhat flexible in its composition as my interviews and reports will follow market trends:

• Co – Cobalt
• Ga – Gallium
• Ge – Germanium
• Hf – Hafnium
• In – Indium
• Li – Lithium
• Re – Rhenium
• Se – Selenium
• Te – Tellurium
• Tl – Thallium

Metals are all around fascinating, and I will continue to report on others if and when they make an appearance to present a new solution, or even new mysteries as this one.