10 interesting facts about platinum
The vast majority of the world’s platinum production comes from South Africa and Russia.
Platinum is silvery-white in color, once known as “white gold”, and has a number of useful properties, which explains its application in a wide range of industries.
It is extremely resistant to tarnishing and corrosion (causing it to be known as a “noble metal”) and is very soft and malleable, making it easy to shape.
It’s also ductile, so it’s easy to draw into wire, and nonreactive, meaning it won’t rust and isn’t affected by common acids.
Platinum is one of the transition metals, a group that includes gold, silver, copper, and titanium, and most of the elements in the middle of the periodic table.
The atomic structure of these metals means that they can easily bond with other elements. Platinum is commonly known to be used in jewelry making, but its main applications extend to catalytic converters, electrical contacts, pacemakers, medicines, and magnets.
Here are 10 interesting facts you may not know about platinum.
1. About 50 percent of patients receiving cancer therapy currently use platinum-containing drugs, and some of these drugs, such as cisplatin, are also used to treat tumors and cancer in animals. Platinum is considered a biologically compatible metal because it is non-toxic and stable, so it does not react or adversely affect body tissues. Recent research has also shown that platinum inhibits the growth of certain cancer cells.
2. According to many analysts, platinum production is not likely to increase in the next few years. Most (about 80 percent) of the platinum is mined in South Africa. About 10 percent is mined in Russia, and the rest is in North and South America. Because platinum and other platinum group metals (PGMs) are not usually found in large quantities, they are often by-products of mining other metals. South African producers have already recovered platinum found near the earth’s surface. Today, producers must dig deep into the earth’s crust in search of the metal. Deeper mining translates into higher production costs and lower total output of the commodity.
3. Almost half of the platinum that is mined is used in catalytic converters, the part of the car that reduces toxic gases to less toxic emissions. Platinum and other platinum metals can withstand the high temperatures required for oxidation reactions that reduce emissions.
4. A cylindrical piece of platinum and a platinum alloy is used as the international standard to measure one kilogram. In the 1880s some 40 of these cylinders, weighing about 2.2 lbs. or 1 kilogram, were distributed throughout the world.
5. Platinum Group Metals or PGMs are some of the rarest metals found on earth. There are two subgroups of PGMs: palladium group-platinum group elements (PPGE) and iridium group-platinum group elements (IPGE). The first group consists of platinum, palladium and rhodium. The second consists of iridium, osmium, and ruthenium. PGMs do not tarnish and are highly resistant to heat and chemical attack. All of them are excellent conductors of electricity.
6. Objects dating to around 700 BC have contained platinum. Other PGMs did not appear on the scene until the 19th century. Malleable platinum, which can only be obtained after purification to an essentially pure metal, was first produced by the French physicist PF Chabaneau in 1789; it was made into a chalice that was presented to Pope Pius VI. The discovery of palladium was claimed in 1802 by the English chemist William Wollaston, who named it after the asteroid Pallas. Later, Wollaston claimed the discovery of another element present in platinum ore: rhodium. The discoveries of iridium (named after Iris, goddess of the rainbow, because of the variegated color of its salts) and osmium (from the Greek word for “odour,” because of the chlorine-like smell of its volatile oxide) were claimed by scientists. English. chemist Smithson Tennant in 1803.
7. London is the center of the platinum trade, but physical delivery tends to take place in Zurich, Switzerland. CME’s NYMEX division offers platinum futures contracts. Each futures contract represents 50 ounces of the metal. The platinum price tends to rise and fall with global industrial conditions. The platinum price peaked in 2008 at $2,300 per ounce just before the global economic crisis of 2008.
8. Unlike gold and silver, which could easily be isolated in a relatively pure state by simple fire refining, platinum metals require complex aqueous chemical processing for isolation and identification. Because these techniques were not available until the early 19th century, the identification and isolation of the platinum group lagged behind silver and gold by thousands of years. Furthermore, the high melting points of these metals limited their applications until researchers devised methods for consolidating and working platinum into useful forms.
9. The transformation of platinum into fine jewelry began around 1900, but while this application is still important today, it was soon eclipsed by industrial uses. After World War II, the expansion of molecular conversion techniques in petroleum refining created great demand for the catalytic properties of platinum metals. This demand grew further in the 1970s, when automobile emission standards in the United States and other European countries led to the use of platinum metals in the catalytic conversion of exhaust gases.
10. Platinum mining requires both capital and labor. It can take up to 6 months and between 7 and 12 tons of ore to produce one troy ounce (31.135 g) of pure platinum. The first step in this process is to crush the platinum-containing ore and immerse it in water containing the reagent, a process known as ‘froth flotation’. During flotation, air is pumped through the mineral water slurry. The platinum particles chemically bond with oxygen and rise to the surface in a scum that is removed for further refinement. Once dry, the concentrated powder still contains less than 1% platinum. It is then heated to over 2732F° (1500C°) in electric furnaces and air blown again, removing iron and sulfur impurities. Chemical and electrolytic techniques are used to extract nickel, copper and cobalt, resulting in a 15-20% PGM concentrate. Aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid) is used to dissolve metallic platinum from mineral concentrate by creating chlorine that binds with platinum to form chloroplatinic acid. In the final step, ammonium chloride is used to convert chloroplatinic acid to ammonium hexchloroplatinate, which can be burned to form pure platinum.
The good news is that not all platinum is produced from primary sources in this long and expensive process. According to United States Geological Survey (USGS) statistics, about 30% of the 8.53 million ounces of platinum produced worldwide each year comes from recycled sources. Platinum recycling helps promote and protect the future use of a valuable natural resource.
Platinum can be obtained from the most different sources:
-bars and ingots
-flakes and cereals
– sponges and powder
-wire and gauze crucibles
-lab cable and thermocouple
-Medical equipment
-Aqua regia solutions.
Platinum refining terms are customized based on the type and amount of platinum scrap you have and the service you require.
