Indium - Intrinsic and Extrinsic Values

Indium is a "soft, ductile, manleable, lustrous metallic metal" (1). It's extrinsic value, instilled by the global market and consumer trends, lies within its application in popular technology, such as cellular phones, in many nations as it is used to "form corrosion-resistant mirror surface...as good a quality as that of silver" (1).

However, the intrinsic value of indium is highly limited.  In and of itself, indium "has no biological role" (1). Additionally, indium is not highly pervasive in the environment, thus it is known that indium is a limited resource within the Earth.

In sum, the value of indium is derived solely from the extrinsic value is placed upon it by humanity. As it is used mainly in manufacturing popular technology, consumers have increased demand for this metal, especially as the cellular phone market is exponentially growing in industrialized nations, as well as developing nations around the globe.  In this way, the demand to extricate all possible indium from the environment is in full-swing, with this trend only estimated to grow.



Source:
1: http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/in.htm