Platinum

History  Not widely recognized until the 16 th century  Spanish Conquistadors discovered it in Colombia  Couldn’t separate gold from Platinum, discouraging  Used in Pre Colombian artifacts  Coned the term “little silver”  W.H Wollaston discovered a way of producing malleable Platinum in the 1850’s  Thought of as worthless, thrown overboard to “ripen” only good for counterfeiting gold

Properties  #78 of the periodic table  Platinum group elements  Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium, Osmium, Iridium, Platinum  Dense, lustrous, heavy metal.  Weighs more than gold, appears whiter than silver  Malleable, ductile, chemically inactive  0.3 grams of Platinum can create a 3km long wire  Very high melting point of 3,216 degrees Fahrenheit, highly unreactive

Geological settings  Found most often in nickel and copper ores, some native deposits  Dark Silicate Rocks with minerals containing Iron.  Only 0.004% of Earths crust, about the same as gold  South Africa- Bushveld Complex  Produces an estimated 90% of the worlds Platinum alloys  Great Norilsk Deposits, Russia. Ural Mountains. 26lb  South America- found in sand, where the old Platin  Stillwater Complex Montana, only known ore deposit in country  Sudbury, Ontario

Native Platinum Nugget. Siberia, Russia Can be found in unusual places

Ural Mountains, Russia Stillwater Platinum Ore Nickel-Copper- Platinum Ore Beartooth Mountains Montana

Sulfidic serpentintite-platinum-palladium ore Stillwater mine

Chromite UG2 Platinum Reef, S.A Granular Chromite

Mining  Underground, some open pit mining done on the UG2 Reef in Bushveld Complex  South Africa by far has most mining companies  All operate close to each other. Anglo, Impala, Lonmin  Top 3 In South Africa, 4 th largest in Russia- Norilsk Nickel  Only place in the world where the ore is high enough to specifically target  Anywhere else in the world obtained from nickel and copper mining

Merensky Reef-1.5 ft. thick UG2-Below Merensky Reef, 3 ft. thick

Entrance To Stillwater

Processing/Refinery  10 to 40 tons of ore and 6 month process to produce 1 oz. of Platinum  New techniques as of 2012 have created up to 75% less waste than standard refining techniques (Hoover and Strong)  Closed system, better for environment, and up to 3 times faster  A lot of money in recycling

 After ore is blasted, brought to surface, crushed to smaller particles  Wet chemical treatment, aka froth flotation  Dried, placed into furnace of 1500 degrees Celsius  Matte is formed, ran through converters to remove iron and sulfur  Solvent extraction (Aqua Regia) distillation, and ion exchange techniques

Major Uses  High tech Industry  Unreactive, high temperature resistance  Catalytic Converters main use (less waste and bi products)  High end jewelry  Petroleum Industry- separates gas from crude oil  Electrical properties allow for disk drives, fiber optic cables  All of these are increasing along with Car production. China especially  Military –Heat seeking missiles, refueling cones

Price -Reliant on Auto Industry, and especially China -South Africa Controls most of the market -Investors skeptical

Geopolitical

Questions?