Raw Platinum Ore: 5 Astonishing Facts

Platinum is one of the rarest and most valuable precious metals. It is popular, too.

In nature, natural platinum is not only hard to find, but also rather impure.

Raw platinum ore typically incorporates rare metals such as palladium, iridium, rhodium, and osmium, as well as small amounts of different elements such as iron, copper, nickel, and even gold.

If you are interested in finding out more about this precious metal, stay tuned. I will tell you everything you need to know about raw platinum ore.

Raw Platinum Ore: Facts & FAQ

Raw platinum ore is a natural mineral formation that contains platinum and so-called platinum group metals such as palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium, and ruthenium.

Primary platinum ore deposits are very rare. Therefore, deposits of platinum are typically placer and contain grains of minerals like copper, nickel, and gold mixed with sand or glacier.

Next to platinum, the main platinum group metal in copper-nickel ore is palladium.

The content of remaining platinum group metals (rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium) is significantly lower. In fact, their concentration is tens or even hundreds of times smaller.

Platinum ore deposits contain different concentrations of platinum group metals, too. Primary platinum ores hold the highest percentage.

Platinum ore contains platinum minerals in the form of platinum minerals. There are about 90 platinum minerals we know. The most frequent are:

• Polyxene
• Sperrylite
• Ferroplatinum
• Platiniridium
• Nevyanskite
• Zviagintsevite
• Sisers-kite (a variety of iridosmine)
• Paolovite (Pd3Pb2)
• Froodite
• Plumbopalladinite
• Sobolevskite

Primary deposits of platinum ores are predominantly magmatic in origin. They are usually a form of either platiniferous complex sulfide or platinum chromite ore.

However, the leading natural sources of platinum metals are the complex deposits of copper-nickel sulfide platinum ores.

The main platinum ore minerals are:

• Pyrrhotite
• Chalcopyrite
• Pentlandite
• Cubanite

What Does Raw Platinum Look Like?

Raw platinum ore can be found in many forms in nature. Platinum is a grayish-white, shiny metal.

Native platinum in the placers is usually found in the form of small round and knobby dark-gray nuggets. It can also contain bright silvery scales of iridosmine.

Where Do You Find Raw Platinum?

Primary deposits of platinum ores are typically found on large fractures in the earth’s crust. They are located at different depths (from 0.5–1 to 3–5 km) depending on the geological epoch they were formed in.

The complex deposits of platinum ores can take up dozens of square kilometers.

Hence, the commercial ore zones can be dozens of meters deep or exposed on the earth’s surface (open deposits).

Closed deposits are covered by a sedimentary stratum (about 10–30 inches thick).

Commercial platinum ore deposits are found on the Siberian and African platforms, in the Ural district of Russia, Colombia (along the Chocó River), Canada, and Alaska.

The alluvial deposits in South Africa and the Urals account for most of the world’s output of platinum.

Platinum ores can be extracted by both opencut and underground mining methods.

However, the opencut technique dominates.

The three biggest platinum ore mines in the world are Impala Mine and Mogalakwena Mine in South Africa, and Kola MMC Mine in Russia.

How Do I Identify Platinum Ore?

Three tests are used to identify platinum. The simplest one is a heating and discoloration test, but the acid test is very common, as well.

Measuring density is often used to test platinum, too.

How to identify platinum ore with a heating and discoloration test?

Platinum will not melt or discolor when heated in a Bunsen flame. Hence, this test is often used to identify platinum.

How to identify platinum ore with an acid test?

Common acids do not attack platinum. Therefore, an acid test can be used to identify platinum ore and platinum jewelry.

Jewelers often use this method, but there are acid test kits you can buy and use at home, too.

No acid, except the cold aqua regia (3 part HCl + 1 part HNO3), can dissolve platinum.

Most other metals dissolve rather quickly in Sulfuric acid or Hydrochloric acid. The acid test can thus be used to effectively differentiate platinum from other metals.

How to identify platinum ore by measuring density?

Measuring density can help you differentiate platinum from other silver-colored base metals. It is a bit more complicated method than the two previous ones.

There are two basic steps:

• Measuring the mass of the object (in grams).
• Determining the volume of the object by measuring the volume of water it displaces (in cubic centimeters).

Once you complete these two steps, you simply calculate the density of the object by dividing the mass by the volume (grams/cubic centimeter).

All that is left to do is compare this density value with the known density of the platinum, which is 21.45 g cm3.

What Is Raw Platinum Ore Price?

The price of platinum ore is influenced by production and consumption trends. The good news is that global platinum production has picked up after the decline caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Likewise, platinum prices improved over the last 12 months. It has put an end to a six-year declining trend.

Platinum is more valuable than gold due to the fact that raw platinum ore is rarer and harder to obtain.

Final Words

I have tried my best to cover everything you need to know about raw platinum ore without adding too much hard-to-understand scientific data.

If I forgot to mention something of great importance, feel free to mention it in the comment section.

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