Prospecting for Platinum
 

Anybody ever prospect for platinum? I was thinking about doing it on my next trip to Michigan's Upper Penninsula. Fairly wild idea, but I have been researching some stocks of mining companys that have hit some pretty good deposits just north of Lake Superior in Ontario. Marathon is hitting lots of 5-6 gram per ton stuff near the town of the same name and North American Paladium has a good mine operateing about 80 miles west with higher paladium values with some platinum. As simular "canadian shield" ground underlies parts of the central and western UP there might be some there also. As most of the prospecting fever was expended here in the 1800's before the metal and it's worth became known, some deposit might have been overlooked. :coo_mal:

Re: Prospecting for Platinum
 

Pretty difficult to do I'm afraid. Pt is far more rare than Au, and Pt nuggets are exceedingly rare. Most Pt by very far was formed in microscopic particles. Visible Au is rare and visible Pt is much more rarer than that. Pt's therefore just about impossible to weekend/recreational prospect & recover like a person does Au.

I've found three Pt nuggets in the last 40 years, and they're smaller than a BB and I'm very proud to have them. Fact, I've never heard of a Pt nugget larger than a BB.

Ag too is pretty tough to prospect and recover doing weekend/rec work because like Pt, the propensity of it was formed in microscopic particles too small to see.

One thing you can bet though is that if you are fortunate enough to get a Pt nugget in your pan it's for sure going to go to the bottom. Pt is heavier than Au.

Best of luck to you. A great part of the fun is the "chase"...a guy never knows for sure; maybe in the next pan? I hope you find the silver-gray colors.

Re: Prospecting for Platinum
 

Thanks goldminer! I am just following up on a old old third hand rumor that this was done in the UP durring the Depression; most probabally hokum as you would think that there would have been some follow through. But I think that the price of platinum wasn't all that hot in those days.

Just learned a little more on platinum formation and have found that it is formed in the heaviest of lavas[mostly the oldest ones from a couple billion years ago] and these have to cool very slowly for it to sink to the bottom of the flow and have time to re-crystalize to a nugget. BB sized is about as big as they usually get. Doesn't go into solution with the silicon like gold does.

Envy your being in an area where you can do some gold hunting. I have to drive 3-400 miles to get out of the Michigan Basin and do some hunting in the UP. No gold to speak of yet only colors, though I have picked up 50 or so pounds of copper nuggets from the old mines, a few with half gram or so silver crystals on the outer margins.

Re: Prospecting for Platinum
 

"...I am just following up on a old old third hand rumor that this was done in the UP durring the Depression; most probabally hokum as you would think that there would have been some follow through. But I think that the price of platinum wasn't all that hot in those days..."

Good possibility the information you have is valid. Finding platinum is difficult because it's so rare and difficult to locate and recover. It takes a lot of time and work...most people aren't willing to do it. Maybe start out but give it up as trying to find the proverbial "needle".

Re value, I don't know about the specific cost in those days. I can tell you that Pt has always been very expensive compared with gold. It was in the 20's when Pt jewelry became vogue and most folks couldn't afford it that "white gold" was developed to satisify the huge market of folks who wanted a platinum jewelry "look" they could afford. 14Kt white gold is silvery looking but 18Kt. has a somewhat more gray appearance similar to Pt.

Good hunting. I wish you the best.