Is platinum a mineral?
Yes. Native platinum, Pt, is an IMA mineral: cubic, hardness 4 to 4.5. Of 39 IMA rows with Pt, 22 are compounds and 16 alloys; polyxene is an old label name.
Yes. Native platinum is a mineral: the element Pt, cubic, hardness 4 to 4.5, density 14 to 19, with its own IMA row (G, 1748, Colombia). It is one of 39 IMA rows with Pt in the formula; the rest are alloys such as isoferroplatinum or compounds such as sperrylite, PtAs2. Refined platinum is not a mineral.
In short
- The definition. The IMA commission’s 1995 definition of a mineral says a mineral is an element or chemical compound that is normally crystalline and formed as a result of geological processes. The Handbook of Mineralogy platinum sheet gives Pt, cubic, space group Fm3m, found chiefly in placer deposits or in mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks. Native platinum is an element, crystalline and geologically formed, so it meets the definition.
- The Pt ledger. A field scan of the September 2026 IMA-CNMNC Master List, checked by a token scan and a raw line count, finds 39 rows with Pt in the formula. 1 is the element. 16 are written in metals alone, such as isoferroplatinum Pt3Fe and rustenburgite Pt3Sn. 22 are compounds with sulphur, selenium, tellurium, arsenic, antimony or bismuth, such as sperrylite PtAs2 and cooperite PtS. None contains oxygen.
- Six platinum-group elements, six rows. Platinum (G, 1748, Colombia), palladium (G, 1803, Brazil), iridium and osmium (Rd, 1991 s.p., Canada), rhodium (A, 1974-012, USA) and ruthenium (A, 1974-013, Japan) each have a row written as the element alone. Harris and Cabri’s 1991 review names each osmium–iridium–ruthenium alloy by its major element and its structure, cubic or hexagonal.
- The dropped-name ledger. Cabri and Feather (1975) retired polyxene and ferroplatinum: use Pt–Fe alloy until the structure is known. Harris and Cabri (1991) retired platiniridium (now platinian iridium), osmiridium (now iridium) and iridosmine (now osmium). A case-insensitive scan of the IMA list finds 0 lines for each, apart from iridosmine inside the name rutheniridosmine.
- Where the answer changes. The 1995 definition says anthropogenic substances are not minerals. A grain from a Chocó placer is the mineral. A refined bar or a piece of jewellery is the metal, not a mineral specimen; buying questions are out of scope here.
| Name | Formula (IMA) | IMA status | Class (script) | Platinum by mass | Hardness | Density | Is it platinum? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platinum | Pt | G, 1748, Colombia | Element | 100% | 4 to 4.5 | 14 to 19 | Yes: native platinum |
| Ferroan platinum | No IMA line | A variety (1975) | - | Pt with 20 to 50 atomic % Fe | - | - | Yes: a variety of native platinum |
| Isoferroplatinum | Pt3Fe | A, 1974-012a, Canada | Metals only | 91.29% | n.d. (VHN 503 to 572) | n.d.; calc. 18.41 | No: a Pt–Fe species |
| Rustenburgite | Pt3Sn; Handbook (Pt,Pd)3Sn | A, 1974-040, South Africa | Metals only | 83.14% | n.d. (VHN 365) | n.d.; calc. 15.08 | No: a platinum stannide |
| Hongshiite | PtCu | A, 1988-xxx ?, China | Metals only | 75.43% | 4 | 15.71 | No: a Pt–Cu species |
| Cooperite | PtS; Handbook (Pt,Pd)S | Rd, 2022 s.p., South Africa | Compound | 85.89% | 4 to 5 | 9.5 | No: a platinum sulphide |
| Braggite | PdPt3S4; Handbook (Pt,Pd,Ni)S | Rd, 2022 s.p., South Africa | Compound | 71.38% | n.d. (VHN 946 to 1064) | About 10 | No: a platinum sulphide |
| Sperrylite | PtAs2 | G, 1889, Canada | Compound | 56.56% | 6 to 7 | 10.58 | No: a platinum arsenide |
| Pt–Fe alloy | No IMA line | General name (1975) | - | Varies | - | - | Not yet named: needs X-ray data |
| Polyxene, ferroplatinum | No IMA line | Dropped, 1975 | - | - | - | - | Old labels: re-identify |
| Refined platinum, bars, jewellery | - | Not a mineral | - | Varies | - | - | The metal, made by people |
Is platinum a mineral? Yes, as native platinum
Native platinum is a mineral: the chemical element platinum, crystallised by geological processes. Nickel 1995, Definition of a mineral (Mineralogical Magazine 59, 767), published with the approval of the IMA commission, says that in general terms a mineral is an element or chemical compound that is normally crystalline and which has been formed as a result of geological processes. The Handbook of Mineralogy platinum sheet gives Pt, cubic, point group 4/m −3 2/m, as cubic crystals, typically distorted, to 1.5 cm, commonly as grains or scales and rarely as nuggets or lumps up to 30 kg; malleable and ductile, hardness 4 to 4.5, density 14 to 19 measured, whitish steel-gray.
What the IMA list records. The September 2026 list gives platinum, Pt, status G, grandfathered, 1748, with Colombia as the country of first description. The sheet marks the Pinto River, near Papayan, Chocó, as the type locality, and says platinum occurs chiefly in placer deposits, or in mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks, rarely in hydrothermal quartz veins or contact metamorphic deposits. The species facts, with the iron question worked on the sheet’s analyses, are on platinum.
Is platinum a metal or a mineral? Both, in the way any native element is. The mineral is the natural crystalline material; the metal is the element, whatever its source. The parallel questions, each with its own tests, are is gold a mineral, is silver a mineral and is copper a mineral; crystal vs mineral sets out the wider terms.
How many minerals contain platinum? The Pt ledger
The September 2026 IMA list has 39 rows with Pt in the formula, and 38 of them are not native platinum. Method: the list was converted with pdftotext -layout. Every line was split on runs of two or more spaces and the second field kept as the formula; an independent scan took the second whitespace token of every line, and a raw count found 39 lines containing Pt as an element symbol. All three agree. A strict row parser found 37, missing crerarite, whose formula contains spaces, and daomanite, whose status is printed A?; both were read from their raw lines. Platinum, isoferroplatinum, sperrylite, cooperite and braggite were all found, as a positive control.
The split. Each formula was sorted by the elements in it. 1 row is the element. 16 are written in metals alone: platinum with iron (isoferroplatinum Pt3Fe, tetraferroplatinum PtFe, sidorovite PtFe3), copper (hongshiite PtCu, orthocuproplatinum and kitagohaite), tin (rustenburgite Pt3Sn, niggliite PtSn), indium, lead, nickel, or several of these, as tulameenite Pt2CuFe. 22 are compounds with sulphur (10 rows), bismuth (6), selenium (4), tellurium (3), antimony (3) or arsenic (2), some with more than one; sperrylite PtAs2, cooperite PtS and braggite PdPt3S4 among them. None of the 39 contains oxygen.
Reading the ledger. Every one of the 38 is a mineral that contains platinum; none is platinum. Worked from the IMA formulas, isoferroplatinum is 91.29% platinum by mass, cooperite 85.89%, rustenburgite 83.14%, braggite 71.38% and sperrylite 56.56%. Sperrylite, by its own sheet the most widespread platinum mineral, is cubic like native platinum but brittle, hardness 6 to 7, tin-white with a black streak.
Which other platinum metals are minerals? Six element rows
Each of the six platinum-group elements has an IMA row written as the element alone. The same scan, run for single-element formulas, finds platinum, Pt (G, 1748, Colombia); palladium, Pd (G, 1803, Brazil); iridium, Ir, and osmium, Os (both Rd, 1991 s.p., Canada); rhodium, Rh (A, 1974-012, USA); and ruthenium, Ru (A, 1974-013, Japan). The Handbook sheets give palladium cubic, ductile and malleable, density 11.9; iridium cubic, hardness 6 to 7, density 22.65 to 22.84; osmium hexagonal, density 22.48.
How the alloys are named. Harris and Cabri 1991, Nomenclature of platinum-group-element alloys (Canadian Mineralogist 29, 231) records that the IMA commission adopted, for these alloys, the rule that a series is split at 50 mole %, and names osmium for hexagonal alloys with osmium the major element, iridium for cubic alloys with iridium the major element, and ruthenium for hexagonal alloys with ruthenium the major element. For the iridium–palladium–platinum system it names three minerals: iridium, palladium and platinum.
Platinum and iron are different. For platinum–iron alloys the 1975 nomenclature sets an 80 atomic % line for native platinum and names a ferroan variety between 20 and 50 atomic % iron; that rule and its worked examples are on platinum and are not repeated here.
What are polyxene, ferroplatinum and osmiridium? The dropped-name ledger
Five old platinum-metal names on labels have no IMA row; each now points to a current name. Cabri and Feather 1975, Platinum–iron alloys: a nomenclature (Canadian Mineralogist 13, 117) says polyxene is no longer considered a valid species or varietal name, and that some polyxenes may be native platinum, ferroan platinum, isoferroplatinum or just platinum-iron alloy; ferroplatinum, it says, is no longer a valid species name and Pt–Fe alloy should be used for incompletely characterised material. Harris and Cabri’s 1991 review says iridosmine, osmiridium and rutheniridosmium are no longer valid: alloys in the field of iridosmine are now osmium, and those called osmiridium are now iridium; platiniridium should no longer be used, such minerals being platinian iridium.
Checked against the list. A case-insensitive scan of every line of the September 2026 IMA list finds 0 lines containing polyxene, ferroan platinum, platiniridium or osmiridium. Ferroplatinum appears only inside isoferroplatinum and tetraferroplatinum, and iridosmine only inside rutheniridosmine, which the 1991 paper retains for hexagonal alloys with iridium dominant. An old label carrying any of the five names describes real material under a retired name; only an analysis, and for Pt–Fe material a structure, gives it a current one.
When platinum is not a mineral. The 1995 definition says anthropogenic substances, those produced by man, are not regarded as minerals, and that one identical to a mineral can be called a synthetic equivalent. Refined metal, bars and jewellery are the metal, not mineral specimens; the definition’s handling of laboratory-grown material is worked on is diamond a mineral and is not repeated here. The classification questions are indexed at the collecting guides. Nothing on this site is offered for sale; the wanted list is the only commercial route.