Platinum: The Precious and Pretentious Metal
Among the 50 states, only Alaska can lay claim to being a commercial producer of platinum, the fabled metal of kings whose rarity exceeds that of gold. Over half a million ounces of the metal have been extracted by placer operations near the village of (what else?) Goodnews Bay in Southwest Alaska.
Fabled and rare it is, but in truth, platinum doesn't have much of a history and the little that it does have has been mainly one of frustration to kings and chemists alike. Because of its extremely high melting point (3,216 degrees F., as compared with 1,944 F. for gold) and its virtual indestructibility, it is highly valued in industry, in medicine and in the sciences. These features also make it maddeningly difficult to process and purify. Trade secrets of platinum refiners are as jealously guarded as any of those used by the petroleum industry.
To add to the woes of platinum-producing nations, the dreamed-of riches which they hoped that the rare metal would bring never materialized. Gold, though more common, has always been preferred for coinage.
The story of platinum's involvement in modern history really begins in Columbia with gold placer mining operations by the Spanish conquistadors during the late 1600s. To the annoyance of panners, small grains of a gray-white metal continually settled out with the gold. The Spanish referred to the tiny pellets by the derogatory term "platina," meaning "little silver." It was such a nuisance that several operations had been abandoned on its account. It was first brought to Europe in 1735, in the hope that some use might be found for it, but metallurgists in Spain, England and France were unable to do much with the metal. In fact, they couldn't even melt it.
The key to doing that came in 1774, when Joseph Priestly succeeded in isolating oxygen. The French chemist Antoine Lavoisier then tried directing a stream of that gas onto charcoal to generate enough heat, and was able to melt platinum for the first time.
With this accomplished, Spain, which still held a monopoly on the world's supply of platinum in Columbia, suddenly saw a virtue in the previously despised metal. In 1778, King Charles of Spain decreed by royal edict that "platinum was to be worked exclusively for His Majesty," and that all subjects who possessed samples were to hand them over without payment. He also demanded that his scientists work in absolute secrecy to protect their discoveries in platinum research from duplication--an attitude which apparently persists to this day.
Napoleon discourteously interrupted the king's plans for growing wealthy on platinum by invading Spain in 1794. As a consequence the techniques which had been painstakingly developed for handling platinum were lost for many years.
By 1820, commercial uses were being found for what platinum was available. Although the platinum trade had now opened up after Columbia had won independence from Spain, most of the easily accessible deposits were almost depleted.
But then, new discoveries were made in the Ural Mountains, and Russia was soon supplying 92 percent of the world's platinum. As Spain had done before, Russia declared a state monopoly, forbidding the export of the unrefined metal and limiting all refining to the St. Petersburg mint. Nicholas I of Russia hoped to use this metallic wealth to enhance Russia's power and influence, and in 1828 he ordered the minting of hundreds of thousands of platinum coins.
It must have come as a bitter surprise to Nicholas that nobody in the world market wanted to trade for his coins. This situation must stand as one of the classic examples of all time that having a monopoly on, say, blivets, doesn't necessarily mean that people will beat a path to your door. Russia did not learn this lesson until it had used almost half a million troy ounces of platinum in an effort to make it a medium of exchange comparable to gold and silver. The coins were withdrawn from circulation in 1846.
That was the last platinum fiasco. Since then, platinum has done quite well for itself on the world market. It is a more stable
The coins were finally commodity in the metals market than either gold or silver, but the reason for this lies in its many uses and not in its intrinsic value. The keen edge it maintains on your Platinum Plus razor blade and its use in the catalytic converter in your car are daily reminders of its more mundane uses. The price you pay for a piece of platinum jewelry tells you that it's not common and that it's not easy to produce. More important, it has many exotic uses in space, engineering and science technology for which it's all but irreplaceable.