Other Precious Metals

The price pattern for silver is excessively complex. Fear of inflation, armed conflict and the varying patterns of industrial usage all have effects on the price of silver. The metal is quoted in United States dollars per troy ounce. The London bullion dealers' market is the dominant market for silver, and that the Comex in New York has a very important futures market. Prices quoted on futures and spot markets are for 0.999 silver.

The prices of palladium and platinum are daily fixed by a group of dealers in London, and futures are traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are quoted in US dollars per troy ounce.

Other precious metals of the platinum group do not trade on terminal markets, and the most useful quotations are the prices of producers set by individual refiners in answer to the market for every metal.

Other Metals
Prices of metals that are not traded on terminal markets like the London Metal Exchange or the bullion dealers' market most of the time find their price levies by demand and supply. Many are traded on long-term contracts between producers and consumers — for instance, a steel producer might have contracts for the supply of iron ore, chromium, and nickel with quite a few producers.

In the daily absence of futures prices and spot prices, the important price is the price of the producer. Most of the time the price of the producer will be set to quite a few different grades or forms of the metal. For instance, there are separate prices and cobalt oxides.

Very similarly, iron ores are graded for their sale, base on the quantity of contained phosphorous, silica and other impurities. Iron ore pellets are the most wanted form of iron among makers of steel. Prices are quoted per tonne for international trade.

Metals which are used in the making of steel, such as manganese, chromium and vanadium, is apt to being sold as metal which is refined, ore concentrate or alloyed – at a specified concentration – with iron.

Two other important alloy metals without terminal markets are molybdenum and tungsten. Tungsten is sold as ore ferrotungsten or concentrate, while molybdenum is most of the time quoted at a price per pound of molybdenum contained in a molybdenite concentrate.

The price of uranium is affected by political factors related to its military use. While a market does exist for sales of small lots on a spot basis at a price called the "exchange value", the vast majority of uranium is sold to public utilities under a long-term contract.

No matter how the metal occurs in the mine, uranium is sold in U.S. dollars per pound of U3O8 (which is a uranium oxide). Mine output is priced accordingly.