Indium Metal DNA™
· Atomic #49 · ₹69,296.24/kg today
The invisible layer on almost every touchscreen and flat display on Earth — and a metal that exists commercially only because someone else was mining zinc.
Indium DNA Profile
Each dimension below is either computed live from data this site already tracks, or a manually researched figure with its own source — see how these are calculated.
How is this calculated?
Computed from the 30-day price change already stored in this site's own price history: score = 50 + (30-day % change × 2), clamped to 0–100. A metal flat over 30 days scores 50; every 1% of 30-day move shifts the score 2 points either way.
How is this calculated?
The standard deviation of daily % price changes over the last 10 trading days, scaled ×20 and clamped to 0–100. A purely descriptive measure of recent swing size, not a positive or negative signal on its own.
How is this calculated?
The single largest producing country's share of reported global production (excluding the "Other countries" residual bucket), taken directly from the USGS-sourced figures already powering /metal-reserves. Higher = more concentrated in one country.
No reliable dataset for this metal yet — shown honestly as not scored rather than a guessed number.
How is this calculated?
Summed reported reserves ÷ summed reported annual production, across only the countries USGS reports both figures for (same commodity, same units — never summed across commodities). Scaled: 40+ years of reserve life scores 100, scaled down linearly below that.
No reliable dataset for this metal yet — shown honestly as not scored rather than a guessed number.
How is this calculated?
Manually researched from each metal's primary industry association (see each metal's Sources section) — not computed. Scored as 100 minus the largest single demand sector's share of total demand, so a metal with no single dominant buyer group scores higher than one dependent on one sector.
No reliable dataset for this metal yet — shown honestly as not scored rather than a guessed number.
Scientific Identity
- Symbol
- In
- Atomic Number
- 49
- Category
- Critical Minerals & Energy
Source: IUPAC Periodic Table of the Elements. Further physical/chemical properties (density, melting point, electron configuration) are planned for a future update — not shown until individually verified per metal.
The Metal Inside Every Touchscreen
Indium tin oxide (ITO) forms the transparent, conductive coating that makes touchscreens and LCD/OLED displays work at all — there's no widely-deployed substitute that matches its combination of transparency and conductivity, which keeps indium demand tightly linked to global display manufacturing output.
A Byproduct of Zinc, Not Its Own Mine
Like gallium, indium is recovered almost entirely as a byproduct of zinc ore refining rather than mined directly — China dominates that refining step, while the display panels it ends up in are overwhelmingly built in South Korea, Japan and China's own electronics factories.
Recycling Happens at the Factory, Not the Landfill
A large share of the indium consumed in display manufacturing never actually ends up on a finished screen — it's left over as spent sputtering-target material during the coating process, and specialized recyclers now recover the large majority of that leftover indium and tin for reuse. Manufacturing scrap, not old phones, is the real backbone of indium recycling today.
Did You Know?
Indium's total annual global supply is small enough that a single major refinery outage can noticeably tighten the market — a scale of fragility copper or aluminium simply doesn't have.
Frequently Asked Questions
Indium Metal DNA™ is MetalsCost's intelligence profile combining scientific identity with market, supply and demand indicators — each indicator is either computed from this site's own stored price and reserves data, or a manually researched, cited figure. See the methodology page for exactly how.
Indium's overall score of 26/100 is a simple average of the individual dimensions currently scored for it below — click any dimension's "Why?" for its exact formula and source.
The Indium price in India today is ₹69,296.24 per kilogram as of August 28, 2026. See the live price and chart.
MetalsCost Metal DNA™ is an informational and analytical indicator. It is not investment advice, a price target, or a recommendation to buy or sell any commodity or financial instrument. See the methodology page for data sources and calculation details.
