And nickel processing provides cobalt, palladium, rhodium and scandium.
Dr Negishi, of Purdue University, then went on to improve the process, by involving zinc-based compounds in addition to the palladium.
South African strikes have also affected the palladium supply.
Switzerland's Zurich Cantonal Bank was expected this week to launch an ETF based on platinum, palladium and silver.
Dr Kelsall has patented a method he calls "engineered corrosion" which, coupled with electro-winning (ie, removing metals from solution), can recover gold, silver, palladium, copper and other metals from shredded circuit-boards.Smelting has a further disadvantage in that shredding the boards to recover the metals destroys their components.
As Russia's stocks diminish further and South Africa's production remains stable, Johnson Matthey reckons the palladium price will rise in the next six months.
Although cheaper palladium is increasingly used in new petrol vehicles, platinum is still the only practical option for diesel.
He employed palladium to promote reactions involving alkenes molecules in which two carbon atoms are joined by what is known as a double bond (each carbon atom can form up to four bonds with other atoms, which is why there are so many types of organic compound).
World palladium supplies grew by 18% in 2004 as Russia sold metal from its stockpile.
South Africa's output was a record, but Russia's was the lowest for five years.In this section Overview Output, demand and jobs Prices and wages Health spending Money and interest rates The Economist commodity price index Stockmarkets Trade, exchange rates and budgets Platinum and palladium Reprints.
It was set up as the result of a European research project called BioShale, which showed that bacteria could recover nickel, copper, lead, silver, zinc, cobalt, rhenium, selenium, tin, gold, platinum, palladium and uranium from Europe's extensive but underexploited "black shale" deposits.
