Iridium · Origin deep dive
Dealer loco spot (very thin market)
Tiny market — crucibles, electrodes, electronics
A dealer-quoted market with metal vaulted at specialist refiners in Zurich, London and Philadelphia; no exchange listing exists.
99.9% iridium powder and small fabricated forms, referenced against Johnson Matthey and Heraeus published base prices.
Tiny airfreighted lots between refiners and industrial fabricators; annual supply is only several tonnes worldwide.
Crucible makers for sapphire growth, electrode and spark-plug manufacturers, and electrochemical coating producers.
No seasonal pattern; prices step-change on industrial capacity build-outs and single-buyer procurement campaigns.
Opacity and minuscule liquidity mean one electrolyzer or LED capacity wave can multiply the quoted price.
PEM electrolyzer and crucible demand
Delivered to Chinese electrolyzer catalyst plants and sapphire-crucible fabricators through specialist importers.
High-purity iridium for PEM electrolyzer anode catalysts and iridium crucibles used in sapphire and oxide crystal growth.
Small airfreight consignments under industrial term contracts; fabricators recycle aggressively given scarcity.
PEM electrolyzer and coating manufacturers in the green-hydrogen build-out plus LED-sapphire crucible makers.
Demand follows hydrogen project subsidy rounds and crystal-growth capacity expansions rather than any calendar.
PEM catalyst thrifting, alkaline-electrolyzer substitution and hydrogen policy momentum decide whether demand outruns tiny supply.
Co-product FOB
Recovered as a minor PGM co-product at Rustenburg-area refineries and airfreighted from Johannesburg to industrial users.
Fine iridium powder separated in the final PGM refining stages; output is a fixed small fraction of basket ounces.
Producer contracts allocate scarce annual output; supply cannot respond to iridium price because it rides platinum mining.
Industrial fabricators and dealers on allocation from Valterra, Impala and Sibanye refining streams.
Supply lumps follow smelter runs and refinery campaigns; wage and power disruptions echo through with long lags.
Total dependence on strained South African PGM mining means shaft closures and smelter outages choke iridium disproportionately.
Recovery under spot
Closed-loop returns of spent crucibles, electrodes and coated anodes to refiners like Heraeus, Furuya and Johnson Matthey.
Reclaimed iridium refined back to 99.9%, with crucible scrap the dominant and highest-grade secondary feed.
Toll-refining loops with industrial users; long fabrication-to-return cycles delay how fast recycling answers price spikes.
The same crucible and electrode fabricators, closing the loop under refiner tolling agreements.
Return flow mirrors crucible replacement campaigns and electrolyzer stack rebuilds rather than any seasonal cycle.
Long return lags and dispersed coating losses cap secondary supply just when primary output is inelastic.