Commercially, palladium is produced from copper-nickel deposits in Siberia, South Africa, and in Ontario in Canada. The precious metal is also found - alloyed with the other metals in the platinum group as well as with gold - in Ethiopia, Australia, North and South America, and in the Ural Mountains in Russia. Records have the following details about the Welcome Stranger: Gross weight: 3,523.5 troy ounces (241.61 pounds) Trimmed weight: 2,520 troy ounces (172.8 pounds) Net weight: 2,315.5 troy ounces (158.78 pounds) Measurement: 2 feet (0.61 meter) x 1.02 feet (0.31 meter) For their find, Deason and Oates were paid about 19,068 by the London Chartered Bank (located in the town of Dunolly in Victoria), where they took the nugget. The precious metal is likewise obtained as a by-product of mining nickel. Below are some of the properties of iridium. General: Chemical Symbol: Ir Atomic Number: 77 Category (as an element): Transition Metal Group/ Period/ Block (in the Periodic Table): 9/ 6/ d Atomic Weight: 192.217 g.mol-1 Electron Configuration: [Xe] 4f14 5d7 6s2 Physical: Density (near room temperature): 22.56 g. They discovered the element from platinum ore samples as well as from the mineral gadolinite. They named it after the Latin word "rhenus", for "Rhine", one of Europe's longest and most important rivers. As for the precious metals gold and silver, both are known to be already in use since ancient times (gold was in use probably as early as before 6000 BC, while silver probably as early as before 5000 BC). There also are bullion dealers that provide this same kind of service. Gold bars however are becoming less and less an option among investors due to the difficulties (in the verification process, transportation, and storage) associated with them. Opening a gold account: Gold accounts are offered by most banks in Switzerland. But apart from these, both are also regarded as investment commodities. Palladium as an investment commodity: Palladium is valued at around US$415 per troy ounce. Actually, this is much lower than its price of more than one thousand U.S. dollars per troy ounce in early 2001, when the automobile industry placed a high demand for the precious metal for use as catalytic converters.
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