Silver and ruthenium – the Cinderella metals that are finally going to the ball

Among precious metals, gold and platinum tend to hog the limelight, and understandably so, given their price performances over the last year. But two so-called “Cinderella” metals – silver and ruthenium – are making their presence felt in the market. Silver, which has long straddled the line between precious and industrial metal, is benefiting from the surge in electrification and renewable energy. Meanwhile ruthenium, a rare platinum-group metal (PGM), is moving out of the shadows as it grows in importance in electronics, data storage and catalytic applications. We take a closer look at these “Cinderella” metals in the context of supply, demand, pricing and their investment case.
 

Silver – applying the polish

Silver has a diverse demand base, of which about half is tied to industrial uses. The decline in photographic demand over the past two decades has in recent times been offset by electronics and, increasingly, solar demand. Photovoltaics (PV) related silver demand has grown at a double-digit annual pace for a decade and has accelerated in the last five years as higher-efficiency cell designs have become more silver-intensive. For example, heterojunction solar cells, which combine crystalline and amorphous layers to minimise energy loss, use silver to enhance conductivity and light capture. Modern heterojunction applications can require more than twice the silver per watt than older designs.

Beyond PV, silver is used in electrification applications such as switches, connectors, circuit boards, 5G infrastructure and the wiring and sensors inside electric vehicles, as well as in medicine. Investment demand in the form of coins, bars and ETFs has been strong this year as macro uncertainty has supported precious metals. Jewellery and silverware form a meaningful part of overall demand but tends to be price sensitive.

Silver’s supply is structurally inelastic (changes in price have little impact on supply) because about 70 to 75% of mined silver is a byproduct of mining lead, zinc, copper or gold. Only a quarter to a third comes from primary silver mines. As a result, higher silver prices do not necessarily trigger a quick supply response unless these aligns with capex cycles of the other metals. Many of the largest silver producers are therefore diversified miners, with Mexico (followed by China and Peru) the main sources of global output.

Recycling is a key source of supply at the margin. Silver scrap from electronics, industrial processes and jewellery now contributes over 200 million ounces annually, cushioning the gap between mine supply and rising demand. Even so, the market has run successive structural deficits in recent years, drawing down above-ground inventories in London and COMEX vaults to multi-year lows. Inventories do still provide a buffer, but that cushion is thinner, leaving prices more sensitive to shocks.
 

Silver’s pricing and outlook

Silver traded at a record high of US$54/oz in October and is up over a third year-to-date. Macroeconomic tailwinds such as easing monetary policy, a softer US dollar and persistent inflation hedging, have driven prices, alongside tight supplies. The gold-to-silver price ratio is around 85, which suggests that there is scope for a catch-up should the precious-metals price upcycle continue.

To sustain levels above US$50/oz, silver will likely need continued growth in industrial demand, as well as further inventory drawdowns and a supportive macro backdrop. Baseline expectations are for a still-sizable 2025 deficit and elevated (but volatile) prices as solar build-out and electrification continue.

For investors, silver is straightforward to own. Physical bullion, liquid ETFs, COMEX futures and mining equities all provide routes with differing risk and leverage.
 

Ruthenium – a small market, but a big squeeze

Ruthenium was first discovered by Russian-German scientist Karl Klaus, who named it after the old Latin name for Russia (Ruthenia), when he isolated the element from platinum ores found in the Ural Mountain region in 1844. It’s the earth’s 78th most abundant element and is found in ores with other PGMs.

Ruthenium has a diverse set of uses and hence sources of demand:  

• Electronics and data storage. Ruthenium thin films are used in hard disk drives (HDD) and advanced semiconductors (as barrier/seed layers and in certain electrodes). The AI-driven expansion of data centres is underpinning HDD demand (despite the benefits of solid-state drives (SSD)), because HDDs still offer the most cost-effective capacity at hyperscale. This keeps ruthenium relevant when it comes to expenditure on cloud and AI infrastructure.
• Chemical catalysts. From ammonia and acetic acid to specialised hydrogenation/oxidation reactions (including Fischer-Tropsch-related processes), ruthenium catalysts are widely used, with small unit loads and large process scales.
• Materials and alloys. Small quantities of ruthenium are used to harden platinum jewellery, improving wear resistance, while ruthenium oxides feature in thick-film resistors and certain electrical contacts.
• The energy transition. Ruthenium (often as RuO₂ or in alloys) is a promising anode catalyst in proton exchange membrane electrolysers and features in other electrochemical processes. If green hydrogen grows in scale, this could become a new major source of demand.

Crucially, there is virtually no large-scale recycling of ruthenium from electronics today, meaning that rising usage translates directly into primary demand.
 

Ruthenium’s supply – geology and geography

Global ruthenium mine output is tiny (30 tonnes a year) compared with tens of thousands of tonnes for silver. It is only produced as a byproduct of PGM mining, primarily in South Africa, with Russia a distant second.

This creates three hard constraints:

• Inelasticity: You can’t mine more ruthenium without mining more platinum/palladium.
• Refining bottlenecks: Ruthenium is separated late in complex refinery circuits; not every plant is configured to maximise recovery.
• Concentration risk: Over 80% of mine supply comes from South Africa, meaning that outages, power constraints and labour issues directly affect global availability.

Historically, above-ground stockpiles held by a handful of producers/refiners have helped to smooth the market. Those buffers have thinned considerably in recent times, as structural demand growth has outstripped flat primary supply. 
 

Ruthenium’s pricing and outlook

Ruthenium prices have tripled since the beginning of the year to roughly US$900/oz, above previous peaks. The move has been primarily led by fundamentals: chronic deficits, dwindling stocks, small market size and limited substitution. Some degree of thrifting is likely to happen (thinner films, process optimisations), but for many applications there is little scope for this.

Ruthenium lacks any form of meaningful mainstream investment: there are no futures, no ETFs, and physical dealing is a niche game with wide spreads and liquidity risk. The practical route is indirect, usually by owning PGM miners with higher ruthenium contributions or diversified producers that benefit from minor-PGM price strength. Remember also that exposure is diluted by platinum, palladium and rhodium cycles; ruthenium alone won’t drive the equity story, but it can enhance margins in tight markets.
 

A structural story expressed in different ways

Silver and ruthenium benefit from the same structural story – electrification, digitisation and decarbonisation – but they express it in different ways. Silver is scalable and investable, and its fortunes are increasingly tied to solar and electronics. Ruthenium is scarce and more specialised: thin supply and broadening use have created a classic squeeze.

Together, they illustrate how the energy transition and data economy are reshaping commodity demand and why investors should look beyond the usual suspects when thinking about metals.

* This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on research by the author. The article was checked and edited by the author and our editorial team.