Current Iridium Price and Iridium Rate with Chart

Iridium is the opposite of rhodium in demand structure: rhodium hangs on one application, iridium spreads across four blocks of which none reaches half. The largest is coatings of iridium oxide, often with ruthenium oxide, on electrodes for water treatment, hydrogen production, electrowinning and the chloralkali process. The most underrated item there is plating for copper foil production, copper foil going into batteries and into circuit boards for data and AI applications; Johnson Matthey expects "further gains" in that use in 2026.

The electrical row shows what a high price does here. After the surge of 2020 and 2021 "Chinese manufacturers of iridium crucibles adopted platinum for some crucible formats", and the row falls from 50,000 ounces in 2021 to 26,000 in 2022. A high price does not pull out supply; it pushes out use, and the IPA names why: "substitution potential is magnified by the small size of iridium primary supply". Iridium is not designed out because it is expensive, but because it is scarce. One figure is deliberately missing: a crustal abundance specific to iridium. The IPA gives about 1.5 ppb for all platinum group metals combined and no per-element value, while the figure in wide circulation is identical for iridium, rhodium and ruthenium — a placeholder.

Primary supply in 2025 was 229,000 ounces, or 7.1 tonnes, which the IPA calls "essentially stable, at around 7 tonnes between 2019 and 2025" — the flattest supply series of any platinum group metal, six years between 6.8 and 7.4 tonnes. Iridium did not respond to the high of 2021, nor to the hydrogen enthusiasm, nor to the records of 2026. It is nowhere mined as a main product: by mass about 2% of the platinum group metals basket. In the UG2 Chromitite Reef the minor metals can exceed 20% of total platinum group metal content, against a few per cent in ordinary ores.

The second structural fact is the missing valve. Johnson Matthey reports no secondary supply for iridium at all, and the IPA explains why: recycled volumes "arise almost entirely from closed-loop systems, where the original owner retains metal ownership", open-loop recycling being undeveloped because "the iridium content is often very low in final products (typically, a few milligrams e.g. in a spark plug)". For rhodium, spent autocatalysts deliver roughly 31% of total supply — the sharpest distinction between the two metals.

Iridium is an industrial raw material, not a monetary metal. There are no coins and no documented exchange-traded product: Johnson Matthey reports holdings for platinum, palladium and rhodium and none for iridium. What remains is sponge, powder, grains and bars from specialist suppliers, where the market structure applies directly: the measured 30.0% refiner spread against 7.0% for platinum, a further 5.8% for fabricated metal, and VAT, because the European exemption covers investment gold only. There is no Irish quoting desk. For scale, the US government stockpile listed potential iridium disposals of 15 kilograms for financial year 2025.

Mining shares carry the same objection as for ruthenium: the headline South African revenue metric is the 4E basket — platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold — and iridium is not in it, appearing only in the 6E content. Producers benefited "from unusually elevated ruthenium and iridium prices" in 2025 on top of that basket.

Ireland has its own rules here, not a copy of any neighbour’s. Nothing below is tax advice, and every figure is stated as at 25 October 2026.

Value-added tax. Physical iridium carries the standard rate of 23% under s. 46(1)(a) VATCA 2010, on all forms alike. Investment gold is relieved by Schedule 1, Part 2, para. 9(1) with s. 90(1) VATCA 2010, enacting articles 344 to 346 of Directive 2006/112/EC — and every element of that definition describes one metal: fineness, minting date, legal tender status, a premium measured against the gold value. The relief turns neither on "bullion" nor on "precious metal" nor on coinage; it turns on the word gold. Imports from outside the Union pay on importation.

Margin scheme and reverse charge. Section 87(1) VATCA 2010 defines "second-hand goods" "but not including … precious metals and precious stones", and defines precious metals by naming silver, gold and platinum. That is the one place in the Irish code where the identity of the metal matters — and the metals named are not rhodium, ruthenium or iridium. Revenue has published no position on an iridium lot, so this page quotes no effective margin rate. On the reverse charge there is a gap in the record rather than a rule: none reaching the platinum group metals could be established.

Capital gains tax. Section 28 TCA 1997 charges chargeable gains at a flat 33% for disposals on or after 6 December 2012 (s. 28(3), amended by s. 43 FA 2013). It is metal-neutral: neither the charging section nor the chapter of exemptions after it (Part 19, Chapter 7, ss. 601 to 613A) names a metal. And there is no holding period: proceeds, less documented cost, less the expenses of the transaction. Section 601 exempts the first EUR 1,270 of yearly gains, not transferable between spouses.

The 33% is the rate for gains of a capital nature; repeated dealing can engage the badges of trade in s. 3(1) TCA 1997 and fall under income tax plus the universal social charge. Where that line lies is not quantified anywhere — s. 551 settles only priority, and Revenue publishes no transaction count and no amount, so this page names no figure.

Cash and reporting. The money-laundering threshold is EUR 10,000 and applies to cash only (s. 25(1)(i), Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010), in both directions; a trader dealing only by card or transfer, or only below it in cash, is not a designated person at all. There is no general cash limit today, but from 10 July 2027 article 80(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 caps business cash payments at EUR 10,000 and article 19(4) lowers the identification threshold to EUR 3,000. Supervision sits with the Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Unit, not the Central Bank, and the cash to be declared at the external frontier includes gold only.