platinum group metals (platinum group metals)
Also known as: PGMs · PGM · platinum group elements · PGEs
Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) are a family of six rare metallic elements — platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium — used in connectors, catalytic components, and sensors in electronics. They are among the highest-value metals recovered from e-waste, commanding prices of hund
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What is platinum group metals?
Platinum group metals (PGMs) are a family of six chemically related rare elements that occupy adjacent positions in the periodic table: platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), rhodium (Rh), ruthenium (Ru), iridium (Ir), and osmium (Os). They share extreme corrosion resistance, very high melting points, and exceptional catalytic activity, which is why they appear in catalytic converters, fuel cells, electrical contacts on high-reliability connectors, sensor elements, and the multilayer ceramic capacitors and palladium-silver thick-film resistors on every printed circuit board.
Where PGMs sit in e-waste: Palladium is the most abundant PGM in mainstream e-waste, present at 50-150 grams per tonne of mobile-phone PCB scrap (in MLCC terminations, Pd-Ag conductive pastes, and connector plating). Platinum and rhodium appear mainly in hard-disk-drive platter coatings (cobalt-platinum-chromium magnetic films), oxygen sensors from automotive electronics, and laboratory equipment. Ruthenium is used in resistive ink on thick-film resistors. At recent prices — palladium around Rs 30,000-35,000 per 10 g, platinum Rs 25,000-30,000 per 10 g, rhodium volatile but periodically reaching Rs 75,000-1,00,000 per 10 g — a single tonne of dense connector and MLCC scrap can contain Rs 4-7 lakh INR of palladium alone.
Recovery route: PGMs travel through the same hydrometallurgical sequence as gold and silver but require their own selective precipitation chemistry, typically dimethylglyoxime for palladium and ammonium-chloride-based digestion for platinum and rhodium. Most Indian e-waste plants do not refine PGMs internally; instead they ship a precious-metal-rich concentrate or a slime fraction to integrated smelters in Belgium, Japan, or Singapore, accepting a refining loss in exchange for capital-cost avoidance.
Strategic significance: PGM supply is dominated by South Africa (75%+ of global platinum) and Russia (40%+ of global palladium), making secondary supply from e-waste an important diversification for industrial users. India has very limited primary PGM resources and is almost entirely import-dependent, so domestic e-waste-derived PGMs are a real but underdeveloped strategic stockpile.
Common questions about platinum group metals
Plain-English answers to what people most often ask.
What are Platinum Group Metals (PGMs)?
Where are PGMs found in e-waste?
Can PGMs be recovered in India?
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