Why do thieves want catalytic converters?

IT’S ALL ABOUT those precious metals. Rhodium is one of the rarest and most valuable elements on Earth, with barely 30 tons mined worldwide each year (compared to 2,500 tons of gold), 80 percent of that from South Africa and most of the rest, at least before the invasion of Ukraine, from Russia. Part of that scarcity is due to its natural rarity, and part to the fact that it has to be extracted from existing platinum or nickel ore deposits. Palladium, while not quite as rare, also has to be extracted as a by-product of other precious metal mining. An estimated 80 percent of these two rare metals are used by the auto industry for catalytic converters—a supply that’s only gotten more scarce during the pandemic.