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Palladium 950 Rings It looks like platinum, it feels like platinum, its part of the platinum family and is a great alternative to platinum when it comes to jewellery. Palladium is a precious metal, one of the platinum group metals (PGM), which typically are found together in ore deposits. The USA has only one primary palladium producer, the Stillwater Mining Company, which operates two mines in southern Montana. At that location, the palladium ore bearing layer called the J-M (Johns-Manville) Reef is the richest known palladium deposit currently being exploited anywhere in the world. Active mining from this location produces a high grade ore containing a palladium:platinum ratio of just over 3:1. After mining, the ore is refined by Stillwater at a site near Columbus, Montana, to a purity of 60% PGMs, then shipped to Johnson Matthey for final refining of palladium, platinum and other metals at a facility in New Jersey. Palladium currently trades for between quarter and a half of platinum's cost, a fact consumers have deeply appreciated buyer resistance to ever-increasing prices of gold and platinum has allowed palladium jewellery to make substantial inroads. More than a fifth of the world's net palladium supply now goes to jewellery, with most of the demand arising in China. Like platinum, palladium can be fashioned into jewellery as a stand-alone or alloyed with other metals. Palladium, for example, can be substituted for nickel in the manufacture of white gold. All our jewellery is made with Palladium 950 the standard grade for jewellery. Palladium wasn't always a poor relation, though. Palladium, in fact, actually cost more than platinum back in 2001. The technology to efficiently cast palladium as jewellery didn't exist then. With that problem now resolved, jewellery use has spiked as the price trajectories of platinum and palladium reversed.
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