The Geological Occurrence, Mineralogy, and Processing by Flotation of Platinum Group Minerals (PGMs) in South Africa and Russia

Russia and South Africa are the world’s leading producers of platinum group elements (PGEs). This places them in a unique position regarding supply these two key industrial commodities. The purpose this paper is to provide comparative high-level overview aspects geological occurrence, mineralogy, processing by flotation minerals (PGMs) found each country. A summary some major challenges faced country terms concentration ores presented alongside opportunities that exist increase production respective metals. These include more efficient recovery such as arsenides tellurides, management siliceous gangue chromite ores, and, especially Russia, development novel routes recover PGEs from relatively low grade occurring dunites, black shale vanadium-iron-titanium-sulphide oxide formations.