 Occurrence
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| Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring as only 5 ppb in the Earth's crust. In 2005, South Africa was the top producer
of platinum with almost 80% world share followed by Russia, Canada and Botswana, reports the British Geological Survey.
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| Platinum is often found chemically uncombined as native platinum and alloyed with iridium as platiniridium. The platinum arsenide, sperrylite (PtAs2), is a major source of platinum associated with nickel ores in the Sudbury Basin deposit in Ontario, Canada. The rare sulfide mineral cooperite, (Pt,Pd,Ni)S, contains platinum along with palladium and nickel. Cooperite occurs in the Merensky Reef within the Bushveld complex, Gauteng, South Africa.
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| Platinum, often accompanied by small amounts of other platinum family metals, occurs in alluvial placer deposits in the Witwatersrand
of South Africa, Colombia, Ontario, the Ural Mountains, and in certain western American states.
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| Platinum is produced commercially as a by-product of nickel ore processing in the Sudbury deposit. The huge quantities of nickel ore processed makes up for the fact that platinum is present as only 0.5 ppm in the ore.
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