This is weird. We were just talking about this at Science Friday. Did you know that Aluminium was considered even MORE precious before modern day industrial methods for extraction were invented? When Napoleon was expecting the really important guests, he put away his gold plated and silver service and took out his aluminium one.
It is the rarity and longevity of the minerals that we tend to value. Our civilisations have been known by the metal they valued and left behind. The Iron Age, The Bronze Age, The Copper Culture. The procurement and use of metals and minerals define culture.
The discussion at Science Friday was about the very real plans to begin mining asteroids. Most are made up of iron and nickel, but they are sure they will find things like gold, platinum and silver as well. This led to discussions about precious metal markets and what will happen to their value and how disastrous would it really be if the market was suddenly flooded with cheap silver or nickel. The futures market would probably see in an initial boost in trading as they speculate on the success of the missions, but I’m sure it would all end up like Napoleon’s aluminium serving set.