The price of palladium, a precious metal 30 times as rare as gold, has risen by more than 50% since August, surpassing the price of gold for the first time since 2001. Last week the price of 1 ounce of palladium topped $1,400, while platinum dipped under $800, and gold hovered just above $1,300.

Palladium is in the platinum family of metals, and jewelry connoisseurs know it as an alternative to gold or platinum. Its catalytic properties also make it hugely valuable to the automotive industry.

More than 80% of palladium is used for catalytic converters, the New York Times reports. Those devices, installed between the engine and the tailpipe, convert as much as 90% of the hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide in automobile emissions into less harmful nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapor.

As China and developing countries enforce stricter auto emission limits and diesel cars are phased out, these properties are also becoming more in-demand than ever.

Another reason for its growing value is the simple fact that palladium deposits are rare, with major mines in Russia, South Africa, Ontario and Montana. Overall, it’s estimated about 110,000 tons of platinum-group metals are held in reserve around the world, with nearly 70,000 tons held in South Africa. This means that recycling is an important source for the metal, with about 121 tons of platinum, palladium, and rhodium recovered globally from scrap in 2017, USGS reports.

With the price of palladium skyrocketing, that’s led to a rise in brazen thefts of catalytic converters, the Wall Street Journal reports. A Toyota Prius converter has about 2 grams of harvestable palladium, which can fetch about $450 at a scrapyard.

“We’ve had three different sets of parking lots hit, and they usually get four or five vehicles each time,” police Lt. Chuck Nagle in Vestavia Hills, Ala., told the WSJ. “They’re usually taking them out of state and getting anywhere from $150 to $200 at a clip. … They’re not selling the part. They’re selling the metal.”

Mining urban resources in the form of recovering precious metals from scrapped cars and electrical waste makes good sense, but it’s obviously preferable for such mining not to happen on the streets, on your car. (Remember the rampant copper thefts of the recession?)

钯金的稀有程度是黄金的30倍。从去年8月至今，钯金价格已上涨逾50%，进而形成2001年以来钯金首次比黄金贵的局面。上周，钯金价格突破每盎司（约28.35克）1400美元，铂金价格跌至800美元以下，黄金价格则在略高于1300美元的水平徘徊。

钯是铂族金属，珠宝鉴赏家把它看作是黄金或铂金的替代品。催化性能又让钯成为汽车行业非常宝贵的金属。

据《纽约时报》报道，80%以上的钯都用在了催化式排气净化器中。该装置位于发动机和排气管之间，能够将汽车尾气中多达90%的碳氢化合物、一氧化碳和二氧化氮转化为不那么有害的氮气、二氧化碳和水蒸气。

随着中国等发展中国家强化汽车尾气排放限制以及柴油轿车的逐步淘汰，钯的这些属性变得比以往更受欢迎。

钯金价格上涨的另一个原因很简单，那就是储量稀少，主要钯矿分布在俄罗斯、南非、加拿大安大略省和美国蒙大拿州。美国地质勘探局的报告称，全世界铂族金属总储量估计约为11万吨，其中近7万吨位于南非。也就是说，循环利用是此类金属的一个重要来源——2017年，全世界从废品中回收的铂、钯和铑约有121吨。

《华尔街日报》指出，钯价直线上升造成铜制催化式排气净化器的盗窃案增多。从一辆丰田普锐斯的排气净化器中可以获得约2克钯，而这种净化器在废品厂能卖到450美元左右。

阿拉巴马州维斯塔维尔山的警督查克·内格尔告诉《华尔街日报》：“我们手头有三宗停车场盗窃案，罪犯们每次一般会对4、5辆车下手。通常他们会把赃物带到别的州，每次能卖个150到200美元……他们要偷的不是净化器，而是那里面的钯。”

采集城市资源，或者说从报废汽车和电子垃圾中回收贵金属听起来合情合理，但大家显然不愿意看到这样的“采集”活动发生在大庭广众之下，发生在自己的车上。（还记得经济衰退时肆虐的偷铜事件吗？）（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林