tick tock show me ya???

[ausjack]

tick tock show me ya rock..or is it? found this while looking at feebay and thought it was strange and totally useless but would still be fun to play with but can't think of anything you could use it for and as for the next gold etc is a bit of a have :dodgy: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Liquid-Metal-Bullion-Pure-99-99-Rarer-Than-Gold-Silver-and-Platinum-Bar-/271146697260?pt=AU_Bullion&hash=item3f219a422c
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/999-Pure-Liquid-Metal-Bullion-Rarer-Than-Gold-and-Platinum-/261127454154?pt=AU_Bullion&hash=item3ccc68bdca

[Triggersmob]

99.99% pure what?

[stevo1962]

Looks like mercury which is deadly

[Sapyx]

Looks like mercury which is deadly

It claims not to be mercury, which is fair enough - mercury is still liquid at zero degrees C; it doesn't "melt in your hand", it'll melt in your freezer.

There are a couple of elements that will melt in the hand; gallium is one (m.p. 29.7 deg C). Most of the other elements at similar melting points (such as caesium) you frankly wouldn't want to hold in your hand, as they'd explosively react with the water in your sweat. Gallium, however, is fairly safe.

Gallium also sounds about right for the price. These guys in America will sell you as much gallium as you want for US$638/kg - 60 cents a gram.

As to rarity, um... the claim of it being "rarer than gold" etc is patently not true. The Wikipedia article on elemental abundances makes this clear. It may be true that there isn't as much of it being refined as there is gold, but that's simply because the stuff is, well, almost useless. We don't need to make more and could easily do so if we needed more; it's made as a byproduct of aluminium and zinc refining, and most refiners simply aren't bothering.

[accumulator]

ITS NOT TOXIC AND NOT HAZARDOUS,do they know this for certain ? They said aluminium was safe to cook with in the beginning too,  there is no way i'd handle it until i knew 100% positive that it can't be absorbed into your body.

[Fr45h3R]

+1 On Gallium. Comes in a few alloys as well so they can control the melting point.

[humpybong]

From the pages of SSB Mint in Sydney:

http://www.ssbmint.com/gallium

999 GALLIUM - Extremely low melting point of less than 30 degrees Celsius. Extremely rare and with many uses the demand for Gallium is soaring at a unbelievable rate, historically faster than Silver & Gold.

Totally safe to handle Gallium is a fun metal for student experiments and a must have for element collectors. Gallium is seen in the pictures will melt in your hand, it is just a truly amazing metal.

Gallium is a safe and sound investment as unlike Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium and Rhodium there is no known substitute for it, no other metals can replace its use, so as demand increases and stock piles fall the price will sky rocket. More and more people world wide are turning to rare earths as an investment as with economic uncertainty and crazy inflation metals are truly the only safe bet. Governments can keep printing money but they can not make these rare earths.

Gallium at just $1 per gram is a safe investment, we predict the price to at least double, maybe triple over the next 2 years.

All our Gallium is shipped in spill proof containers and we ship world wide using a safe method of shipping.

[interest]

Looks like mercury which is deadly

When I was a kid back in the early 60's my Cousin had a jar of mercury which we used to play with, we would smash it on the floor & pick it up with our hands I remember putting it in my mouth & spitting it out.
we had fun with that jar of mercury & we are both still here.
Our house was built from asbestos don't know how we survived.

[Sapyx]

That "mint" and that eBay seller are either one and the same group, or one has copied the hype from the other.

Gallium is not a "rare earth" metal. Rare earths are only found in certain places on Earth in exploitable grade; most of the currently worked exploitable sources are in China. But gallium is a trace contaminant in bauxite (aluminium ore) so as I said, anyone with a supply of bauxite and an aluminium refinery can make as much gallium as they wish, if they choose to; as far as I know, all the Australian aluminium refineries simply throw all their unrefined gallium away with the rest of the red mud. You can bet they'd stop doing that if gallium prices really did do as these pie-in-the-sky speculators promise.

ITS NOT TOXIC AND NOT HAZARDOUS,do they know this for certain ? They said aluminium was safe to cook with in the beginning too,  there is no way i'd handle it until i knew 100% positive that it can't be absorbed into your body.

It is never possible, in science, to prove that anything is "safe". If you ask a scientist, breathing air isn't "safe". All science can do is prove a harmful effect, if one exists and is detectable. A result of "no harmful effect detected" can be interpreted by the scaremongers as "ambiguous results".

That being said, gallium isn't as much "fun to play with" as mercury was. It is much more likely to smear on your skin, staining it grey. And it's just as likely for someone regularly exposed to gallium to become allergic to gallium as it is for someone to become allergic to any other metal on regular exposure.

Another thing not really touched on yet: if you choose to play with your .9999 fine silver coin, you're still left with a big chunk of .9999 fine silver when you're finished, though it might need a bit of a wash afterwards. But your "99.99% pure liquid metal bullion" isn't going to still be 99.99% pure anymore after you've melted it in your hand a few times. It'll soak up dust, salt from your skin, and whatever else is lying around. Further, gallium is not a "noble metal"; it will gradually oxidize, and if you keep melting it, sloshing it around and then refreezing it, that oxide will get mixed up inside the metal itself.

It'll need re-refining to bring it back up to 99.99% specs again. Which means no-one is going to want to buy it off you at anywhere near "bullion" price.