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How platinum is made

Platinum is so rare that the Sudbury mines in Canada process huge quantities of nickel ore that hold only 0.5 ppm of it.

stations
6
things upstream
12
raw sources
6
steps from the ground
4

The short version

Platinum is mostly won from rock layers in South Africa, and as a byproduct of nickel and copper mining. Ore is concentrated and smelted, leaving the platinum-group metals in a residue or anode mud. Refiners dissolve this in aqua regia, drop out the gold, precipitate platinum as a salt with ammonium chloride, and heat it to metal.

  1. Mine the platinum reef

    Platinum averages about 5 micrograms per kilogram of Earth's crust. The Merensky Reef in South Africa's Bushveld Igneous Complex holds around 75 percent of the world's known platinum. Nickel and copper ores at Norilsk and Sudbury carry smaller amounts.

    Goes in
    Platinum ore

  2. Concentrate the metals

    The ore is crushed and concentrated so the sulfide minerals that carry platinum are gathered together. Typical platinum-group ores hold only about 10 grams of metal per ton of rock.

  3. Smelt and strip the base metals

    Smelting and refining the nickel and copper leave the platinum-group metals behind. During copper electrorefining, they settle with silver and gold into an anode mud that is the starting point for recovery.

  4. Dissolve it in aqua regia

    The platinum-rich material is treated with aqua regia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids. Platinum, palladium and gold dissolve, while osmium, iridium, ruthenium and rhodium stay behind unreacted.

    Goes in
    Nitric acidHydrochloric acid

  5. Drop out gold, then platinum

    Iron(II) chloride precipitates the gold, which is filtered off. Ammonium chloride is then added to the filtrate, and platinum comes out as ammonium chloroplatinate.

    Goes in
    Ammonia

  6. Heat it to metal

    Heating the ammonium chloroplatinate drives off everything but the platinum, which remains as a metal sponge that can be melted and cast.

End of the linePlatinum Next it goes into hard drive.

Worth repeating

  • The Sudbury Basin in Canada, one of the big platinum sources, is a meteorite impact site, and platinum turns up in higher amounts where such impacts set off volcanism.
  • Molten glass does not wet platinum, so the glass industry uses it to handle the melt.
  • In 1924 Hans Merensky found a large supply of platinum in the Bushveld Igneous Complex.

Back to the ground

Follow every input upstream and platinum starts as these 6 raw sources.

Platinum oreAirWaterNatural gasRock saltSulfur

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Where it comes from

  1. South Africaabout 71% of world mine production
  2. Russiaabout 12%

2025, platinum mine production, out of an estimated 170,000 kilograms.

Where it goes next

Platinum feeds 1 line directly.

Hard drive

Keep walking

Ceramic 6 stations · 4 raw sources Magnesium 5 stations · 4 raw sources Hydrochloric acid 5 stations · 5 raw sources Digital thermometer 7 stations · 26 raw sources Indium 5 stations · 4 raw sources Brick 7 stations · 2 raw sources

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Sources

Cite this page: "How platinum is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/platinum

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