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Material World
Mineral · PtAs2

Sperrylite

Platinum arsenide — the most important platinum mineral, and one of very few in which a platinum-group metal forms a mineral of its own.

Ore

Sperrylite is platinum arsenide, and it is unusual simply for existing. The platinum-group metals are so unreactive that they mostly occur as the native metals or dissolved in other sulfides, rather than forming minerals of their own — sperrylite is the main exception and the most important platinum mineral.

It is extremely dense at more than ten times water, silvery, metallic and hard, and it forms sharp cubes that look almost artificial. Most platinum production nonetheless comes from nickel-copper sulfide ores where the metal is recovered from the refining residues, in the same way tellurium and gold come out of copper refining.

Medium confidence Weak evidence checked recently · only one source, so there is nothing to cross-check it against · stated directly by the source

How this connects

Where a connection has been confirmed by an outside reference, that reference is named beside it.

is an ore of

  • Platinum — element · the most important platinum mineral, though most platinum comes from nickel-copper sulfide refining Wikidata

is a component of

  • Gabbro — rock · the platinum arsenide of the reef horizons, and one of the few platinum minerals abundant enough to matter commercially

contains

Sources

  • Material World
    Our own writing
  • Wikidata
    Wikimedia Foundation · Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication)
  • Crystallography Open Database
    COD Advisory Board / Vilnius University · CC0 — contributors place data in the public domain

Questions this page answers

Where it comes from, and what it becomes

Follow Sperrylite back to what it starts as, and forward into what it becomes. Each step is a documented one — a real route material takes, not a chain of inference.

Downstream — what it becomes

  • Sperrylite → is a component of (the platinum arsenide of the reef horizons, and one of the few platinum minerals abundant enough to matter commercially) → Gabbro → is an input to (for the dark polished cladding and memorials sold as black granite) → Quarrying → produces (cut rather than blasted, because a quarry that shatters its stone has destroyed what it came for) → Dimension stone → is used in (quarried rather than mined, and the distinction is legal and technical rather than merely a word) → Mining and quarrying → is associated with (steam pumping allowed mines below the water table, which is what made deep coal possible) → Industrial Revolution complete chain
  • Sperrylite → is an ore of (the most important platinum mineral, though most platinum comes from nickel-copper sulfide refining) → Platinum → is a source for (and of platinum mining) → Palladium → is used in (in petrol exhaust, and the largest single use of the metal in the world) → Catalytic converter → is used as (the largest catalytic application by metal value there is) → Catalysis
  • Sperrylite → is an ore of (the most important platinum mineral, though most platinum comes from nickel-copper sulfide refining) → Platinum → is a source for (and of platinum refining) → Ruthenium → is a component of (in the newest generations, to stop the heavy elements segregating into phases that embrittle the blade) → Nickel superalloy → is used as (the turbine blade carries its own centrifugal load at four fifths of its melting point, which is structural engineering under the hardest conditions anybody attempts) → Structural engineering
  • Sperrylite → is an ore of (the most important platinum mineral, though most platinum comes from nickel-copper sulfide refining) → Platinum → is a source for (from the residues of platinum refining) → Osmium → is used as (osmium-iridium tips resist wear where a point must not blunt) → Abrasive
  • Sperrylite → is an ore of (the most important platinum mineral, though most platinum comes from nickel-copper sulfide refining) → Platinum → is used as (autocatalysts, petroleum reforming and fuel cells) → Catalysis
  • Sperrylite → is a component of (the platinum arsenide of the reef horizons, and one of the few platinum minerals abundant enough to matter commercially) → Gabbro → is an input to (for the dark polished cladding and memorials sold as black granite) → Quarrying → produces (crushed and graded from quarried rock, and the grading is the product — a concrete mix specifies a size distribution, not a stone) → Aggregate → is a component of (95 per cent of it by mass — the stone carries the load and the bitumen keeps the water out) → Asphalt concrete → is used as (as pavement rather than as structure: a surface that spreads a wheel load into the ground beneath it) → Structural engineering

These are the most distinct paths onward. Sperrylite ends up in others besides.