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Osmium-Institute Germany
Osmium-Institute Germany

THE precious metal

Osmium has been available for purchase in its crystalline form since 2014. It is available in the form of jewelry or as a tangible investment metal. Due to its crystalline luster and special properties, it has enjoyed an unprecedented triumph around the globe in the last 10 years.

Find out more about crystalline osmium. It's worth it.

This document is continuously updated. It is intended for use by end costumers as well as jewelers, investment advisors and sales partners.

THE precious metal
Osmium-Institute Germany
Osmium-Institute Germany
Osmium-Institute Germany

Rarity

Osmium is not only the rarest precious metal but the rarest non-radioactive element of all.

Osmium is mined together with platinum. However, 10,000 tons of platinum ore contain only about 30 grams of osmium. Separating the metals is complex and expensive.

If the mining of platinum declines on the basis of advancing electromobility, as catalytic converters are no longer needed as the main market, then osmium will also be mined in much smaller quantities. This will further increase rarity.

Annual production has been well below 1000 kg since 2019. A significant portion is used for crystallization, while the rest is used in the form of osmium compounds internationally in industry and education.

According to the latest estimates by the Osmium World Council at the annual symposium held in Brazil in 2023, mineable reserves are in the range of only one cubic meter, which translatees to about 22 tons.

The German Osmium Institute has access to the current reserves and has prepared for the future with long-term supply agreements and a large stock of raw osmium.

Opportunities with osmium

Crystalline osmium is seen in the market as a tangible investment metal as well as an art and jewelry metal. There could, of course, be many other industrial applications resulting from the special properties of osmium, but for each of these options osmium is too rare and also too expensive.

So, in the long run, investors are primarily speculating that osmium's rarity will make it increasingly difficult for jewelers to acquire. In the future, private and institutional investors in kind will supply the jewelry market with crystalline osmium in the form of, for example, osmium discs, osmium diamonds and osmium stars.

When used in jewelry, it is processed together with metals such as gold, silver, platinum or titanium to create spectacular pieces of jewelry. These jewelry pieces take additional material out of the commodity market for osmium. Since the jewelry remains in private hands, the osmium cannot be recovered from it.

Pieces of jewelry made of osmium are too valuable to be sent back into the recycling process, which is also very complex and therefore only carried out to a very limited extent.

However, with the sharply falling prices on the diamond market, osmium used as an Osmavé is now able to replace the diamond in many sections of the market.

The reasons are many. First, because of the perfect reflection of parallel sunlight, the sparkle of osmium can be perceived much farther than the sparkle of diamonds. Second, osmium does not refract light and therefore does not lower the light intensity of the emitted light. Third, with osmium a better diamond carpet shape can be created, making very pointed shapes possible, as well as very soft shapes, because osmium can be cut perfectly.

However, as the eternal metal, its myth may also outrun metals like gold in the future.

Opportunities with osmium
Osmium-Institute Germany
Osmium-Institute Germany
Osmium-Institute Germany
Osmium-Institute Germany

Characteristics

Osmium is called the elative of the precious metals because its physical properties are quite unique.

Just as it has its special place among the tangible asset metals, it is also seen as special in jewelry production.

Physically, however, its status is also exceptional. We would like to mention some examples from the variety of peculiarities.

1) Osmium has the highest abrasion resistance among all materials. It would be the most durable nail file in the world.

2) It also has the highest density of all elements and compounds in chemistry. This alone, along with its crystal structure, is a physical constant that makes its authenticity compelling, as there can be no denser metal.

3) Osmium has an extraordinary ability to resist pressure. Among all materials, it has the highest compression modulus.

4) Osmium also shields particularly strongly a whole spectrum of radiation. If enough osmium were available, it would be possible to protect spaceships from radiation as they traveled through space.

5) It has a unique blue-silver to blue-white luster, which is most apparent in the reflection of parallel sunlight and LED artificial light. Its high reflectivity results in an impressively sparkling and overwhelming crystal structure.

But undoubtedly, it is the most beautiful jewelry metal in the world.

Characteristics
Osmium-Institute Germany
Osmium-Institute Germany

Periodic table

Osmium is a chemical element with the element symbol Os and the atomic number 76. In the periodic table of the elements it is in the 8th group, the iron group. It is a hard, brittle, steel-blue transition metal and belongs to the platinum metals.

Osmium has the highest compression modulus of all elements at 462 GPa and the highest density at 22.61 g/cm3.

Osmium completes the list of noble metals among the subgroup elements. It is the last of its kind.

Periodic table
Osmium-Institute Germany
Osmium-Institute Germany

Precious metals

Precious metals are metals that are resistant to corrosion, that is, that are permanently chemically stable in a natural environment under the influence of air and water. Because of this stability, gold and silver have been in use since ancient times to produce jewelry and coins.

In the last four centuries, platinum metals were additionally discovered, which are similarly resistant to corrosion as gold. On the world markets, mainly gold, silver, platinum and palladium played a role, until recent times.

Since 2014, osmium has also been commercially available, as it can now be crystallized and traded. This means it can be used as a medium of exchange, a tangible asset or as a jewelry metal.

Non-crystallized osmium is harmful to health in any form in which it is offered on the internet. For this reason, osmium could not be placed on the market before the crystallization process was developed.

Osmium-Institute Germany

Osmium-Institut zur Inverkehrbringung und Zertifizierung von Osmium GmbH

Kemmelallee 6
82418 Murnau am Staffelsee
Germany
Osmium-Institute Germany
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Osmium-Institute Germany