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Locations

Headquarters Switzerland

Institut für Seltene Erden und Metalle AG

  • Monday

    09:00-18:00 Uhr

  • Tuesday

    09:00-18:00 Uhr

  • Wednesday

    09:00-18:00 Uhr

  • Thursday

    09:00-18:00 Uhr

  • Friday

    09:00-14:00 Uhr

Laboratory for High-Purity Metals

ISE AG / IMG Laboratory

  • Address

    Frankenseite 76a
    47877 Willich 
    Deutschland

Laboratory for High-Purity Metals

ISE AG / EURO-LABOR GmbH

  • Address

    Amtmann-Ibing-Str. 12
    44805 Bochum 
    Deutschland

Laboratory for High-Purity Metals

ISE AG / HPMP

  • Address

    Stralsunder Ring 13
    69181 Leimen
    Deutschland

High-Security Warehouse

ISE AG / TRANS SPED AG

  • Address

    Embraport 7, Gebäude G1
    8424 Embrach
    Schweiz

ISE AG locations, office locations, Switzerland offices, Lucerne headquarters, Embrach-Embraport, Zurich Airport area, international presence, metal services locations, ISE AG contact points, ISE AG

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History

INSTITUT FÜR SELTENE ERDEN UND METALLE

since 2008

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Our History

  • 2008

    The roots of the Institut für Seltene Erden und Metalle AG date back to 2008. A group of experts was convened under an exclusive mandate to address supply bottlenecks in the manufacturing processes of major industrial companies in the field of rare earth elements.

  • 2011

    Over time, such a large volume of data was accumulated that in 2011 the Institut für Seltene Erden und Metalle AG was formally registered as a registered association (e.V.) in Düsseldorf and has since served as a central repository for all related information.

  • 2013

    An increasing number of inquiries regarding the valuation of various metals led, in 2013, to the decision to leverage our organically developed network to regularly monitor and provide prices for approximately 600 metals across the entire value chain.

  • 2018

    Our new website will be launched with a fresh design, a new database structure, and the latest security standards. We offer interested users daily updated prices for around 600 metals from the fields of rare earth elements, strategic metals, base metals, specialty metals, and isotopes.

  • 2019

    Together with our newly established partner company, we offer metal analysis at the highest technical level. With our GD-MS metal analysis unit, we are able to identify 74 elements. This allows us to determine the purity of a metal with an accuracy of up to 99.99999%.

    The ISE trading platform is now online. Buyers and sellers of metals have a marketplace where ONLY verified individuals can trade and only verified goods are offered. All goods have been inspected, analyzed, and evaluated.

  • 2020

    Together with our Swiss partner company, we are now able to offer you storage solutions for high-value metals. We have access to 5000 sqm of indoor storage space and 2000 sqm of outdoor storage to meet your needs. Everything is, of course, maintained according to the most modern and highest security standards. Our warehouse receipts are internationally accepted.

  • 2021

    The Institut für Seltene Erden und Metalle AG is now operating as a Swiss joint-stock company in the canton of Zug. The reasons for the relocation are its proximity to our warehouse, which we have been operating since 2020 in the Zurich Airport Free Trade Zone, and to the financial institutions with which we have been offering commodity trading programs since 2019.

    The ISE database is now also available online. For a closed user group, we offer around 900 real-time prices for pure metals and approximately 4500 prices for metal products. For all pupils and students, we continue to publish a free average price of all metals based on the last six months.

  • 2022

    The storage capacity in the Zurich Free Trade Zone has now increased to a total of 5500 sqm.

    The Institut für Seltene Erden und Metalle AG is moving its new headquarters to the heart of the city of Lucerne. In Lucerne’s town hall, ISE AG has taken the entire first floor as the sole tenant. The office offers enough space for two conference rooms, a training room, and spacious office areas.

  • 2024

    ISE AG has parted ways with its long-standing partner in metal storage, Cosmotrans AG. With its new handling partner, Trans Sped AG, ISE AG is now able to offer, in addition to the well-known services in the Free Trade Zone, also global secure transportation.

  • 2025

    ISE AG has moved into another open bonded warehouse at a new, modern location in Embrach near Zurich. The new warehouse complex is located only around 100 meters from the previous sites and sets new standards in security, efficiency, and functionality. In addition, ISE AG has launched a new website this year.

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About us

About Us

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The Institut für Seltene Erden und Metalle AG was established with the mission of directly connecting European industrial companies with mining operations. In 2008, growing concerns over the unstable supply chain of rare earth elements and other raw materials classified as critical brought together experts from various fields.

After supply shortages were considered averted in 2011, a formal association was founded as a non-profit organization to maintain and expand the organically developed network of contacts. Since then, we have been recording prices for a wide range of metals and related products, all of which are stored in our comprehensive database.

The Institut für Seltene Erden und Metalle AG stores, analyses, and evaluates high-purity metals and rare earth elements.
 

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Critical / Strategic Metals

Critical and Strategic Metals

“Lithium and rare earths will soon be more important than oil and gas”
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission

The shift away from fossil fuels toward CO₂-neutral technologies, the ongoing digitalization, and the breakthrough of artificial intelligence have led to a sharp increase in demand for lithium, nickel, and cobalt, as well as rare earth elements, over the past two decades. These metals — some with exotic-sounding names like gallium, tantalum, or ytterbium — are indispensable in advanced technologies for semiconductors, drones, and batteries.

By far, the largest producer of most of these metals is China—both in mining and refining. Much like the OPEC countries in the oil industry, China holds a dominant position in the market. This is especially true for rare earth elements. Since China uses its monopoly both as a bargaining chip and as a weapon against competitors, Western industrial nations are striving to reduce their dependence on China.

In 2023, China implemented strict export quotas on gallium and germanium, two elements that play a key role in semiconductors. This tactic is not new. Back in 2010, following the so-called Senkaku incident, there was a rare earth supply crisis marked by extreme price spikes when China suddenly cut its exports. A few years later, China flooded the global market with rare earths at dumping prices, making it impossible for Western competitors to keep up.

The USA, the EU, Japan, Canada—as well as China and Russia—now maintain periodically updated lists of strategic and critical raw materials. These are metals that are essential to each country’s economy, scarce or potentially becoming scarce, and whose supply security is exposed to significant risks.

With targeted raw materials strategies such as the Critical Raw Materials Act by the European Commission and the Critical Minerals Action Plan by the USA, governments are striving to tackle this challenge.

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Base Metals

Base Metals

Base metals are non-ferrous metals. They include:

Aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, tin, and zinc.

These metals are widely used in industry and are accordingly traded as futures contracts on the LME (London Metal Exchange).

The following list includes the most important metals and alloying elements, excluding compounds:

  • Aluminum

    Light metal; aluminum foil, containers, conductor material (electrical engineering)

  • Lead

    Alloys, lead-acid batteries, solders, corrosion protection, ballast

  • Iron

    Most important metallic material (steel, cast iron), numerous alloys

  • Copper

    Electrical engineering (second-highest conductivity after silver), bronze, brass

  • Nickel

    Alloys (nickel-iron, nickel-chromium, nickel-copper, etc.), alloying element (chromium-nickel steel), magnets

  • Zinc

    Alloying element (brass), die-cast parts (zamak alloy), galvanization of steel components (hot-dip galvanizing, strip galvanizing)

  • Tin

    Alloying element (bronze), solders (solder tin), tinplate, tin figurines

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