Platinum has many wonderful properties. It is bright, shiny and resistant to oxidation.

But did you also know that platinum combines with a number of other elements to form chemical mixtures that are useful as catalysts in chemical processes, and also in plating and other industrial processes? And did you also know that in many cases, the platinum that those compounds contain can be extracted by a precious metal refinery like Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners?

Recycling precious metals often involves analyzing and refining big messy batches of mixed materials. People who own these mixed lots of material know that gold or silver or platinum is “in there” somewhere, but don’t know where it is, what it is, or how much of it is present.