The World’s Most Valuable Substances By Weight

In the field of economics, the laws of supply and demand state that the price of a product and its available supply to the market are interconnected.

For example, if a good such as crude oil is produced in excess, the price will drop accordingly (as we all just witnessed over the last 24 months), but when supply was suddenly disrupted in Canada or Nigeria in May, oil prices have rebounded in recent weeks to over 50 USD per barrel.

However, sometimes substances are nearly impossible to produce in the first place – and that means that it can be extremely difficult for the market to respond to increases in demand. The world’s most valuable substances generally fall into this category, and this makes their value per gram very high.

White truffes, for instance, only grow for a couple of months of the year almost exclusively from one part of Italy. They must be foraged by special pigs, and they seem to be worth more every year. The price per gram for white truffles is 5 USD, which means that a pound costs close to 2’000 USD.

Despite this, white truffles barely crack the list of the most valuable substances by weight.

Saffron, a spice that is gathered from the flower of the crocus sativus plant, is another notch higher on the spectrum. To get one pound of dry saffron requires the harvest of 50’000 to 75’000 flowers. There are only 300 tons produced each year, and that annual production is worth around 3 billion USD.

Higher up on the list of the world’s most valuable substances are some familiar metals. But silver for instance doesn’t make the list, as it is only worth around 0,5 USD per gram. However, many of the platinum group metals do make the list: platinum, palladium, rhodium, and iridium all range between 16 to 27 USD per gram. Gold also makes the list, and it has traded for more than an ounce of platinum since early 2015. One gram of gold is worth just under 34 USD per gram.

Iranian beluga caviar and Crème de la Mer are the most expensive non-metals or non-gemstones on the list. Iranian caviar is made from the roe of beluga whales found in the Caspian Sea, and it is valued at about 35 USD per gram. Crème de la Mer was originally created by a physicist for NASA to heal his burns, but it is now sold as a face cream by Estée Lauder for 70 USD per gram.

Diamonds are near the top of the list at 65’000 USD per gram, though like many other gemstones, the value depends on the specific crystal in question. Many industrial diamonds are relatively cheap, but the rarest and most beautiful stones can be worth millions.

At the top of the list we find a combination of extremely rare metals, radioactive isotopes, and gemstones.

The radioactive element Californium, first made in 1950, is the most valuable at 27 million USD per gram. It is one of the few transuranium elements that have practical applications, being used in microscopic amounts for metal detectors and in identifying oil and water layers in oil wells.
(via ‘Visual Capitalist’; original graphic by ‘BullionVault’)