Platinum-gold sintering
Sinterizado de platino y oro
- Date
- c. 100 BCE - 300 CE · confidence medium
- Place
- La Tolita Island, Eloy Alfaro, Esmeraldas, Ecuador
- Credited to
- La Tolita-Tumaco culture
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A mixture of platinum grains with gold powder heated until the gold melts and binds them, producing a workable alloy despite platinum melting at 1,768°C. It is the world's first platinum metallurgy, two millennia before the European one.
Scott and Bray (1980). Europe did not become acquainted with platinum until the 18th century, from ores in Colombia's Chocó region.
What it led to
- two-toned gold-and-platinum jewellery
- powder metallurgy, rediscovered in Europe in the 19th century