Why is platinum never mentioned in the history books as being used by civilizations of antiquity, as are other precious metals such as gold, silver, copper and bronze?
Although platinum is as plentiful as gold and silver, it was not discovered until 1741. Platinum is not found in easily identifiable veins as is silver and gold. It is found in much less identifiable concentrations, usually in gravel along stream beds and never in its pure form. The stream beds in New Granada (Colombia) was the only known location for platinum until 1824, when a new discovery was found in Russia in the Ural Mountains. It was not until a 1935 discovery in Canada that platinum was found in North America. The greatest deposits of platinum were found in South Africa in a region known as the Bushveld Igneous Complex in 1923. An extremely mineral-rich area of approximately 30,000 square miles in the Waterberg district, by the 1950’s this had become the world’s leading producer of platinum.
Related Questions
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