Bushveld platinum (Merensky Reef)
Platino del Complejo de Bushveld (arrecife Merensky)
- Date
- 1924 · confidence high
- Place
- Bushveld Complex, Lydenburg, Mpumalanga, South Africa
- Credited to
- Hans Merensky and Andries Lombaard
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
In 1924 Hans Merensky identified a thin layer with platinum and palladium in the Bushveld Igneous Complex, after a prior find by Andries Lombaard in 1923. It is the world's largest reserve of platinum-group metals.
Credit is disputed: Lombaard found platinum in 1923 in the Maandagshoek valley; Merensky located the main reef in 1924.
What it led to
- the South African platinum industry
- catalysts and electronics
- studies of layered intrusions