Brazil, 1833/1846: Gongo Loco Mine & Johnson's Announcement

Until the 1830s, Palladium was exceeding rare and nominally cost about 10x the POG. As such, it was not widely employed by any industry.

When O.N. Johnson (of Johnson & Matthey) began refining of a fairly large supply of palladium-gold from mines in Brazil (1834-40), the Palladium price collapsed.

Given the sudden oversupply, the London price fell continuously from 1834 - c.1844. Dentists and fine metalworkers soon employed Palladium at a less than one-quarter the POG, and demand increased with industrial innovations of the day.

By 1835, the price had fallen by about 2/3rds:
1834/5: 1 Troy Ounce Palladium (refined) = £ 2.20 (USD$ 10.67)

1840:

1840: 1 Troy Ounce Platinum (wholesale) = £ 0.80 (USD$ 4.)

1840: 1 Troy Ounce Palladium (wholesale) = £ 0.73 (USD$ 3.74)

1812:
Citation: Philosophical magazine(1812) p.4

Circa 1831: SCARCITY of Palladium; no mention of Brazil metal.

Citation: Minerals and metals; their natural history and uses in the arts, (1835)p.103
1833:

Citation: The London literary gazette and journal of belles lettres, arts, sciences, etc. (1833)p.317



1835: Promotion



Citation: Turning and mechanical manipulation: intended as a work of general ..., Vol. 1 By Charles Holtzapffel (1847), p.280
c.1840: US Dentistry

c.1842:

c.1834:


1844:





Citation: Traité de minéralogie, Vol. 3, Pierre Armand Petit Dufrénoy (1847), p.204

1847

Citation: The Year-book of facts in science and art, Edit. Charles W. Vincent, James Mason (1847)p.181

c. 1851

Citation: On recent improvements in the chemical arts, Vol. 2, James Curtis Booth, Campbell Morfit, Smithsonian Inst. (1852)p.62

Citation: The gold rocks of Great Britain and Ireland, John Calvert (1853), p.229

c. 1854

Citation: Elementary course of geology, mineralogy, and physical geography (1856)