Platinum:
Platinum is a material which is very rare and the cost of gold is double than gold. In igneous rocks platinum is formed and these rocks also have iron and magnesium. Along with other materials like copper and gold, Platinum is also found in thin layers. Using surface and underground Platinum is mined. Due to natural calamities like wind, rain etc.platinum gets washed off and goes to the rivers and streams where through placer mining it’s mined.
In earlier days miners felt that platinum is a junky form of silver and they used to throw it away. Since it’s found in gold mine people named it as “white gold”. When copper and gold is mined then platinum is obtained in US. In South Africa, Russia, Columbia, Alaska, and Canada platinum is mined.
Uses of Platinum:
For surgical instruments, chemical equipment, jewelry, and catalytic converters in cars platinum is used. Platinum is metal which can be molded without any trouble and hence it’s used in wire and in items which got to be bent.
Methods of platinum mining:
By narrow reef method first platinum group metals (pgm) is extracted where miners make use of handheld pneumatic drills in order to make holes in the reef which explosives can be loaded. Through blasting when ore is released it is taken out by making use of scrapers which is attached to wenches and transported to the surface.
The most popular and famous mining methods are New mechanical and hybrid mining. One mining procedure is of drilling either by pneumatic drills/newer specialized drilling equipment and then cleaning the ore from the mine using low-profile vehicles known as LHD (load haul dump).
Vital amounts of platinum are manufactured from the mine sites in far eastern Russia and the Norilsk-Talnakh mine which is situated in the Polar ice cap using both open-pit strip and underground mining procedures. In Zimbabwe platinum was found in the year 1925 in a place by name the Great Dyke which runs approximately north and south for about 550 kilometers through the heart of the country.
Top-rated Platinum Producers:
The underground segment which was lately opened uses deeper level extraction methods. By mechanized ramp and fill procedure 80% of platinum and palladium ore is mined and these are more or less like the LHD method in South Africa.
Platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium are the six metallic elements which are called as Platinum Group Metals. At the time of mining procedure these metals are extracted and mining process frequently yields far more nickel/copper than it does for platinum because pgm is rare and also due to its tendency to merge with other metals.
South Africa is the world’s largest producer and there platinum is mined in an area called the Bushveld Igneous Complex. It was estimated that this massive ore deposit has been formed before 2000 years ago, an area of 370 kilometers. And these pgm’s are discovered in three distinct layers known as reefs where the main source of which are the Merensky Reef, first opened in the year 1925 and the Upper Group 2 (UG2) Reef, where mining started in the year 1970s.
