Platinum may be considered one of the precious metals since it is more costly than gold.

About 60
percent of that consumed in the United States is for jewelry purposes. It was once used for coinage
in Russia until its value exceeded that of the coins. Its industrial use is increasing. Platinum is only
one of a group of related metals consisting of osmium, iridium, palladium, rhodium, and ruthenium.
They are not only associated together but also are generally alloyed, and are called, therefore, the
platinum metal They are very heavy, insoluble in most acids, melt at temperatures of 1,549 to
2,700 C, and range in hardness from 4 s to over 7. Iridium is the heaviest metal and osmium the
hardest. Platinum is a modern metal and fer long its production was small. Formerly 92 percent of it
came from Russia and 7 percent from Co lombia. World production, ranging between 500,000 and
ounces, comes mainly from Canada, Russia, South Africa, and from bia. The United States is minor
comes largely Alaska and as a by-product in metal refining.

Most platinum used today is won as a by-product in the refining of other metals, chiefly nickel. ore
Minerals. The chief mineral is the native metal, but platinum also occurs as sperrylite (PtAsa),
cooperite (PtAsS), stibio-palladinite (Pdasb), and braggite (PtPdNis). There are probably also
arsenides of the other platinum metals. The platinum metals form natural alloys with one other,
such as osmiridium or platiniridium, also with iron to form ferroplatinum (16 to 21% Fe) and
polyrene (6 to 11% Fe), and with copper to form cuproplatinum (8 to 13% Cu). Native platinum is
never pure platinum. Treatment. By-product platinum is separated from the containing metal during
electrolytic refining. Placer platinum is concentrated by delicate gravity concentration. Lode
platinum is recovered by com bined gravity and flotation concentration. The individual metals of tha
nlatinim oroun are separated bv complex refining methods.

Associations. Platinum is invariably associated with basic igneous rocks and with the ore minerals
characteristic of those rocks. Most of the platinum of the world is intimately associated either with
ohromite or nickel. Even platinum placers are derived from basic rocks rich in chromite. The
platiniferous nickel ores also contain copper and appreciable quantities of gold and silver

Uses. The chief uses for platinun are in the jewelry, electrical, ana dental industries. Its white color
and hardness make it a desirable setting for diamonds. In the electrical industry it is used for
resistance and contacts in the more delicate instruments, such as telephones and radios, Platinum
finds wide uses in the chemical industry, such as for containers, wire, electrodes, coils, acid making,
X-ray equipment, and as a catalyst. Large acid stills utilize considerable quantities.

Origin. The home of platinum is in ultrabasic igneous rocks, where it has been concentrated by
magmatic processes. The erosion of disseminated magmatic concentrations has yielded the placers
of the Urals, Colombia, and Alaska. Richer magmatic concentrations have formed lode deposits in
South Africa. The by-product platinum from the nickel ores of Sudbury, Ontario, may have been
formed either by magmatic or by hydrothermal processes. Only one deposit of contact- metasomatic
origin is known (South Africa), and only one ireak de- posit has been formed as a fissure vein deposit
by hydrothermal solutions

Distribution. There are three main centers of platinum in the world, namely, the Ural Mountains,
Sudbury, Ontario, and the Bushveld of South Africa. Less important localities are the Choco district of
Colombia and Goodnews Bay, Alaska. Platinum is also won as a by-product from Alaska, Oregon, and
California gold placers. Minor production comes from Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Katanga, New South
Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. Sinall amounts have also been found in Panin. India. Sumatra, New
Zealand, and the Philippines.
Sudbury, Ontario. The main source of platinum in Canada is the Frood mine at Sudbury. where it is
concentrated to an unusual degree in the massive copper-nickel sulphide body of the lower levels Al-
though small amounts of by-product platinum had formerly been obtained from the other niekel
eopper mines, it was not until the rich Frood ores were discovered that Canada became an
important producer of platinum. The platinum content is stated to average 0.05 ounce per ton and
about three-quarters of that amount of the other plstinum metals, chiefly palladium A high gald and
silver content is also associated with the high platinum ores.

Russia. For 100 years after the discovery of platinum in the Ural Mountaihs in 1819, Russia was the
leading snd almost the only source of platinum. The metal is won entirely from placers, but primary
deposits in dunites and pyroxenites have been worked on an experi mental scale. The placers occur
on both sides of the northerly 350 The ore minerals are pyrrhotite, pentlandite, and chalcopyrite.
Only the oxidized portions are worked for platinum.

The contact-metasomatic deposits occur northwest of Potgieters- rust, where Bushveld rocks rest on
dolomite and ironstones. The dolomite has been silicated to a diopside-grossularite rock impreg-
nated by platinum-bearing yellow sulphides with unusually iarge crystals of sperrylite. Cooperite is
also present, and the ores carry nickel and copper. The platinum tenor is 7 dwt.

other platinum occurrences in South Africa include some pegmatitic bodies, minor placers, iridium in
the Rand conglomerates, and the freak Waterburg deposits, where platinum occurs in a vuggy
quartz vein carrying quartz, chalcedony, specularite, pyrite and chrome mica presumably a shallow-
seated, high-temperature hydrothermal or pneu matolytic deposit.

United States. The small platinum production of the United States comes mainly from Goodnews
Bay, Alaska, where high-grade placers are worked in nonglaciated stream deposits near two
peridotite intru sions. The best gravels lie within 2 or 3 feet of bedrock, and chro- mitic magnetite
and ilmenite occur with the platinum All six plat inum metals are present, platinum constituting 68
to 75 percent, iridium 6 to 13 percent, and palladjum is low.

Colombia. The waning platinum production of Colombia comes from the Choco district, where
platinum sands are dredged from streams that cross ultrabasic intrusions; the sands contain up to
0.5 ounce platinum and the same quantity of gold per ton. Both stream-bed and terrace gravels are
work As elsewhere, chromite is an intimate associate, and magnetite, ilmenite, and heavy silicates
are present Most of the platinum is in small grains, but nuggets up to 1 pound have been found. All
six metals are present, platinum constituting about 85 percent. The dredging gravels yield 60 to 90
cents per cubic yard. Native lead has been reported in the platinum sands.