Officially discovered in the 18th Century, modern mining experts estimate that over 15 times more gold and about 150 times more silver have been mined than platinum throughout time. Mining experts also estimate that just over 10,000 tonnes of platinum have ever been mined by man.

What is the percentage of platinum on earth?

1 percent
The platinum metals are extremely rare elements; platinum itself is the most common, with an abundance in the Earth’s crust of about a millionth of 1 percent, whereas the others of the group have abundances of about one ten millionth of 1 percent.

Is platinum rare on Earth?

Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in Earth’s crust. It is sometimes mistaken for silver. Platinum is often found chemically uncombined as native platinum and as alloy with the other platinum-group metals and iron mostly.

How many tons of platinum are there in the world?

Platinum metal reserves worldwide as of 2020, by country (in metric tons) Reserves in metric tons South Africa 63,000 Russia 3,900 Zimbabwe 1,200 United States 900

How big is 8 million ounces of platinum?

And we finally take the cube root to get this theoretical platinum cube’s estimated size. Hence this estimated 8 million ounces of .999 platinum bullion in a cube, would be the size of 2.26 meters per side or 7.43 feet per side.

Why is the world running out of platinum?

If the predicted parameters were reasonable, platinum will run out, and recycling of used platinum will be necessary. Moreover, the fact that the platinum deposit is so concentrated in one region can also be problematic; it may pose the same, if not worse, political problem that the crude oil production has at present.

How much platinum has been pulled from Earth’s crust?

We find just under 190 million oz of platinum or nearly 6,000 tonnes of platinum have gotten supposedly pulled from the Earth’s crust over this 4-decade timespan.