Metal prices

Metal prices are the prices of metal as a commodity that are traded in bulk at a predefined purity or grade. Metal can be split into three major categories, precious metals, industrial metals and other metals. Iron ore

Precious metals and industrial metals are priced by trading of those metals on commodities exchanges. Other metals are traded on demand and the buyers and sellers themselves set the price sometimes using third party companies that set a reference or indicative price.

Precious metals include gold, silver, platinum and palladium and are normally priced by the ounce or gram. Industrial metals include aluminium alloy, aluminium, copper, lead, nickel, tin, zinc, cobolt, iron ore and Nasaac (North American special aluminium alloy) are exchange traded commodities and are normally priced by the metric ton. Other metals include bismuth, selenium, tellurium, and many others including rare earth metals are traded directly between suppliers and users.

The London Metal Exchange is an example of a metals exchange where metal is traded providing pricing for defined purity and contract size. The LME Copper contract for example is for delivery of 25 tonnes of Grade A copper cathode at a specified location and priced in United States dollars. This is used to set the price of copper globally.

From around 1970 to 2010 iron ore prices used to be fixed by agreement of large mining companies and the steel industry.