The growing international osmium market
An overview of the growing international osmium market
Osmium in its crystalline form has become a superstar on the precious metals market. In the eight years since its crystalline form was discovered, the rarest, most valuable and arguably most beautiful precious metal has become the most popular precious metal that can be purchased today.
Important products in both the technical and construction industries are becoming increasingly unaffordable or almost impossible to procure. The supply of gas and oil is no longer guaranteed. Prices for raw materials are shooting through the roof. Some specialist journalists are already talking about galloping inflation. The international humanitarian and economic consequences of the war in Ukraine are growing by the day. The world is heading inexorably towards overpopulation and is also causing a climate catastrophe that was predicted many years ago. More and more autocrats are ruling the world and pursuing only their own personal interests. A gloomy outlook!
At a time when the preservation of personal wealth is the top priority, people naturally turn to tangible assets. Historically, they offer a high degree of reliability. Recently, one investment in particular – crystalline osmium – has stood out from the rest for various reasons.
Unfalsifiability
Osmium is absolutely forgery-proof, i.e. impervious to counterfeiting. This property, which is of particular interest to tangible asset investors, is based on the fact that the crystalline structure of osmium cannot be reproduced or falsified. The crystal structure of each piece of certified crystalline osmium was scanned in 2D and 3D and stored in a secure, centralized database. The crystalline structure of each piece of osmium is linked to an osmium identification code (OIC).
10,000 times more unique than a human fingerprint
The Osmium Identification Code is up to 10,000 times more secure than a human fingerprint. During the certification process, the crystalline osmium is scanned down to the nanometer. There is no material with the same or higher density than osmium; osmium is the densest metal known to mankind. Even a simple density test could reveal a counterfeit.
The secondary market
There is now also a secondary market for crystalline osmium. This secondary market is called the Osmium Marketplace. 1,200 dealers around the world can trade in osmium and broker osmium transactions with private individuals. It is always advisable to visit the secondary market before buying new goods. Osmium does not change. Not in its appearance and not in its structure. It is created for eternity. Osmium is many billions of years old and will continue to exist for many billions of years without tarnishing or losing its surface structure.
Use
The osmium market is not only based on tangible asset investments and the luxury segment of the jewelry industry, but also in abrasive and wearing applications such as in phonographic scanning needles, tips of exclusive fountain pens, pivots and shafts in instrument making as well as in electrical contacts. Hard osmium-containing alloys of platinum metals are used for this purpose. Osmium has also found its way into medical technology. For example, an alloy of 10 % osmium and 90 % platinum is used for medical implants and artificial heart valves as well as pacemakers. Osmium is also used as a catalyst for hydrogenation. Osmium was used together with tungsten for the production of filaments in incandescent lamps as early as 1905. In 1906, the Deutsche Gasglühlicht-Anstalt registered the Osram trademark for the goods “electric incandescent and arc light lamps” with the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin. Osram is a portmanteau word consisting of osmiumand tungsten = osram.
How is the osmium market developing?
If the demand for platinum falls in view of the growing global increase in electromobility, the production volumes of osmium will also fall. As a reminder, platinum was mainly used in the automotive industry for the production of catalytic converters. The sales volume to the automotive industry is estimated at 40% of total production.
The availability of osmium has always been limited, as it is very rare by nature and depends on platinum production. It is also not entirely unlikely that the osmium market could achieve the status of a means of payment. Of course, this depends on its availability worldwide and also on whether it is accepted as a means of payment in its current form. And the greater its popularity among consumers, the more likely it is that an Osmium Diamond or Osmium Coin Disk will be accepted as a substitute currency in times when no currency works.
What else plays a role in the valuation of an investment? Authenticity, of course. Increasingly, cases of counterfeit gold bars are becoming known, some of which have been in the vault for years and were unable to prove their authenticity when resold after expert testing with highly sensitive measuring devices. Only tangible assets whose authenticity can be proven should be sold or transferred to another person in the form of a barter transaction. And this is precisely where the osmium market can really come into its own with its unique advantages. Due to its high value density, osmium cannot be counterfeited and is also easy to transport. There is simply no way to produce counterfeit osmium.
The secondary market
The secondary market for osmium is regulated via the osmium marketplace. Gold and silver, as pioneers on the markets for investment metals, can be sold or exchanged almost anywhere. This is still an advantage at the moment. But the two investment metals could lose this advantage in just a few years. This is against the background that it is an indisputable fact that osmium is the last of the eight precious metals to be introduced worldwide. There will be no more precious metals or discoveries. At least not on our planet. There is also a very high probability that mining areas for osmium will no longer be found. As osmium is associated with platinum ore and all platinum deposits are known, production rates are likely to gradually decline. And what comes next is called the
Osmium Big Bang
In the event that demand for osmium exceeds global availability, the price of crystalline osmium could rise almost vertically.
Every year, a certain amount of osmium is used for jewelry production, currently around 5%. Once processed into jewelry, osmium will never find its way back to investors. It has been taken off the market for good. And the production of jewelry with osmium is steadily increasing. When the osmium big bang occurs, osmium will become scarce for investors. This means that the overall supply on the osmium market will stagnate or decline, as the ratio between the available osmium and the osmium used in jewelry production is changing significantly. In the worst case scenario, the precious metal would no longer be available on the osmium market.
Outlook
A look at the development of the osmium market to date shows that the price of osmium does not correlate with other asset classes or commodities and certainly not with precious metals. Against this background, the inclusion of osmium in a larger portfolio or fund should be considered the order of the day and offer good diversification and value protection.
