Platinum Mining

The way Platinum is mined all depends on the mining company but as Platinum is part of the ‘’Platinum group’’, they are generally found altogether, along with large quantities of Nickel and Copper. Just like Platinum, the rest of the group is also quite rare, so they are often also extracted in the Platinum mining process, separating the different types of metals is a long and tiring process which can sometimes take up to at 7 months. As Platinum is so incredibly rare it can take about as much as 10 tonnes of ore to find one ounce of Platinum.

There are several steps in the mining process of Platinum, the first one being extraction of the Platinum ore and bringing it above ground, there are two ways of doing this the first and older way is to blast the ore free with explosives. The second way is to use drilling equipment to remove the ore, this is then transported away to Platinum out of the ore.

The third step is the extraction process. This is done by crushing the ore into minuscule pieces, once this is done the next process the platinum must proceed through is the flotation separation process, which relies on air particles to push the Platinum particles to the top. They are then skimmed off for refining. The beginning of the refining is the done using the concentration process, the dried platinum froth is then smelted at incredibly high temperatures, then treated with air. After this occurs the Platinum is refined to remove any other particles or metals until it is only Platinum which remains.