Rocksday

Native Platinum

Platinum as grains and rare nuggets in stream gravels, usually alloyed with iron.

Native Platinum specimen
Photo: Periodictableru, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify native platinum

  • Steel-gray grains that never tarnish.
  • Extremely heavy.
  • Malleable, sometimes weakly magnetic (iron content).

Often confused with

Where it's found

  • Ural Mountains, Russia
  • Chocó, Colombia
  • Alaska

Uses

Catalytic converters, jewelry, lab equipment.

Rock tumbling

Not suitable for tumbling.

Did you know?

Spanish colonists in Colombia called it platina, 'little silver', and once discarded it as a nuisance.

Think you could spot it from a blurry close-up?

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