Top 10 Ridiculously Expensive Substances on Earth

Top 10 Ridiculously Expensive Substances on Earth

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You’d need some serious walking around money to score a sample of these substances. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Ridiculously Expensive Substances on Earth. For this list, we’re considering both artificial and man-man substances, as long as they’re pricey. However, we are excluding street drugs like heroin and cocaine, because, while they are expensive, they’re better suited to a list of their own.

We’re just starting our list and already we’ve hit the pharmaceutical jackpot. Soliris is an artificial inhibitor designed to complement the antibodies that clear pathogens in patients with certain rare blood diseases - specifically paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. Considered the most expensive drug in production worldwide, it’s sold to medical practitioners for a measly $5,000 per 30ml. So how much would it cost for the average American? Oh, around $400,000 for a year of treatment. Most individuals will never be given the drug, as it is only used in the rarest of cases.

Highly sought after by anyone who longs for fortune and riches, our next entry has been pursued since ancient times. Originally used as a form of currency for trade between nations, gold is just as desired now as it was during the Gold Rush. Due to its electrical conductivity and its ease of handling and minting, the average price for your own pure piece of the metal is roughly $40 per gram. While it is now mainly used for jewellery and investment purposes, having gold is still a status symbol for the upper class. Face it: we all love gold and it’s not hard to see why.

Have enough gold in your treasure chest? Then step up to our next entry. Considered by many professionals as a noble metal, platinum is used in many different industries because of its strong resistance to corrosion and low reactivity. Due to the many different ways platinum can be used, it’s roughly $1,365 for only an ounce of the stuff. Platinum is everywhere – literally - as its use in the catalytic converters of cars means it’s present in vehicle exhaust and dusts streets worldwide. It doesn’t stop there, as platinum has also been used in different anti-cancer medications. It is a truly versatile metal.

#7: Diamond

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Who knew carbon could look so damn appealing? Renowned worldwide for its appearance and its low count of impurities, diamonds are yet another symbol of the ruling class. This may also be the reality because for an authentic diamond, you could easily be expected to shell out an average of $13,000 per karat, though now that price can rise to over $33,000 according to some sources. While authentic diamonds are rarely found in the Earth’s crust, scientists have created a process to create synthetic diamonds. Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but they will also quickly empty your pockets if you want to get your hands on one.

Our next material only exists because of space. Hydrogen’s third and only radioactive isotope, tritium is most commonly synthesized, though natural tritium is created in the atmosphere while interacting with cosmic rays. Due to the complexity of the element’s creation, natural tritium is extremely rare and the price can skyrocket to as high as $30,000 per gram. Now what is tritium used for? It is a common element in the enhancement of fission bombs, but it mainly powers those self-lighting exit signs you see in buildings. Just don’t go breaking them open in hopes of getting rich quick!

Warning: improper handling of this chemical element may result in loss of life. This highly radioactive metal is often used to make bombs weapons-grade, with the rating based upon the amount of plutonium included. Need something to go nuclear? Feel free to shell out about $40,000 per gram… or just steal some from your friendly neighborhood Libyan terrorists - but believe us, one gram will never do. Unlike most of the other entries on our list, finding plutonium is a rather common occurrence thanks to the fission of neutrons in the Earth’s surface - but don’t go selling it to the next warlord that glances in your direction.

Let’s face it: if you have disposable income, you may want some gems to show off to your friends. Similar to a spinel, taffeite was discovered in 1945 and it’s considered the rarest gemstone on Earth since it’s only been found naturally a handful of times in 70 years. Due to its rarity however, Taaffeite is used exclusively as a gemstone and will cost up to a cool $20,000 per gram. Interesting fact: the gem is the only object that contains both beryllium and magnesium naturally. You must have some serious dough if you can afford even a gram of this brilliant stone.

Need a different, more expensive gem to show off? Go for our next mineral. Originally discovered in the 1950s, painite is a non-radioactive mineral primarily composed of calcium, oxygen, aluminium, boron, and zirconium. Just how rare is it? Well, for the majority of the time that science has been aware of painite, just 25 crystals were known to exist. Does that sound like it’d cost a lot? It should - a gram of painite can cost upwards of $300,000. So, if you want to drain your bank account quickly, just find a guy who can hook you up with some sweet, sweet painite.

Just because an element doesn’t appear naturally doesn’t mean it can’t be ridiculously expensive. An isotope of the artificial element californium, californium-252 is radioactive and highly unstable as a result of the spontaneous fission of its atoms. While an exact price is not available for public knowledge, it is estimated that an individual would have to spend an approximate $27 million for a single gram. This is due to the fact that 252 is used to start nuclear reactors and treat some advanced types of cancer thanks to its radioactive properties. See? Radioactivity isn’t always bad. No honorable mentions this time around.

Mainly comprised of a collection of antiparticles, antimatter is perhaps best known as what keeps the Enterprise’s engine running on Star Trek – however, if produced it could have real world uses in space travel, weaponry, and medicine. As the exact price of antimatter is unknown, it is estimated that it would cost an approximate $100 trillion to synthesize only a single gram. This is due to the difficulty of antimatter creation, since antimatter as individual anti-particles can only be created by using a particle accelerator or in some rare cases as a result of radioactive decay. While this limits our ability to traverse the secrets of open space, it doesn’t limit our ambition or our imagination. Do you agree with our list? What is your favorite expensive substance? For more sought after top tens published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.