Gold nuggets seem to be popular and sell above spot, but about platinum. Is it relatively pure in nature - besides some pall/rhodium "impurities" - or does it need to be refined?
Genuine platinum nuggets ( as found in situ ) are very rare, so if you were lucky enough to find some that way, you would be well-advised to leave them as they are for selling rather than refining them down and selling for spot prices. Like gold nuggets, platinum nuggets vary in purity depending on where they are found, some can be very high purity while others can be much lower.
Half your luck if you found the platinum in the ground yourself @johnnymoronik , that is a feat few people have been able to accomplish. Whereabouts are you based? I know of only a few places in Australia that platinum has been found in large enough size to be called nuggets. These localities are in NSW & QLD, in all other places in Aust it is only found in tiny grains, flakes, or microscopic traces. And even in the US & Canada, I am not aware of anything larger than half an ounce ever being found. The only place on earth where platinum nuggets of decent-sized are being regularly found is in Russia ( The stuff in South Africa comes from deep underground veins, not shallow alluvial sources ). The closest I came was back in the 1980s when I was dredging the bottom of the Buckland River in the Victorian Alps. I found these heavy white metallic nuggets lodged in the crevices of the river bedrock which sent my heartbeat racing thinking they were platinum, but on extraction and closer inspection, it turned out they were just gold nuggets covered in mercury which the old-timers had used during the gold rushes.
Yeah I hate finding gold, it's the worst! I guess at the time platinum was more expensive than gold on top of the nuggets being so rare. I don't want to overthink things so let me get things tested once I'm allowed out of my box - then I'll come tell you my story either way lol
Dragging up an old thread......... I am a bit of a fossicker and have collected specimens of minerals for some time. I did notice some old listings for Alaskan platinum nuggets but nothing current. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Probably after a 5-8g nugget, no rush but wanted to start the search.
Good day, Golden Phoenix, if you do some internet searching you should be able to locate something for sale in the USA in the way of platinum nuggets. But be prepared to pay some serious premium over the spot price if you want something in the multigram size. Interestingly there seem to be more palladium specimens than platinum on offer going by the quick searches I just made. Good luck and buy only from a reputable seller who offers a money-back guarantee, and get it certified professionally by a mineralogist and tested as soon as you receive as fakes are prevalent in the form of bullion platinum being melted down and cast into pretend alluvial nuggets just like is happening with gold.
