Gone Platinum: Contraband and Chemistry in Eighteenth-Century Colombia

Abstract

This article examines the strange career of platinum, an element first identified in colonial Colombia. Around the turn of the eighteenth century, a high-grade platinum alloy, nicknamed 'platina,' appeared alongside gold dust in the alluvial mines of Colombia's Pacific lowlands and quickly caused problems for mine owners, merchants, and the Spanish Crown. The silvery metal was impossible to melt with available technology, and was therefore considered useless, but since it was dense, shiny, and did not oxidize it could be passed off as low-grade gold to unsuspecting merchants. Crown officials lashed out at slaves and free people of color for using platina to debase gold dust in petty exchanges, but they were not the only ones. Records show that mine owners and itinerant traders regularly added raw platinum to gold ingots, creating difficulties at Bogotá's royal mint.Crown attempts to forbid platinum mining and circulation grew more elaborate until the mid-eighteenth century, when scientists in England, Sweden, and other parts of Europe began to experiment with the mystery metal and publish results. They had reportedly received bits of platina mixed with gold dust from Spanish merchants in Cartagena de Indias, but more importantly via the contraband slave trade to the Atrato River, on Colombia's Caribbean coast near the Isthmus of Panama. The story of how platinum went from object of loathing to scientific sensation in the course of the eighteenth century illuminates some of the darker corners of the Spanish Enlightenment, both on the Peninsula and in the American colonies. It also shows how clandestine exchanges between subjects of clashing empires, including enslaved Africans and budding tinkerer-scientists, could have unexpected consequences at both ends of the 'commodity chain.'The early history of platinum is frequently glossed by historians of science, but without noticeable interest in its shifting cultural significance or close ties to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. Almost nothing is said of its Colombian context,

In search of the lost link: the fascinating platinum host rock of Chocó, Colombia

“…The earliest mention of a metal described as indestructible by fire or any Spanish techniques (cited in McDonald y Hunt, 1982) and likely identified as 'aurichalcum', possibly platinum (Russell-Wood, 1951;Scott, 1992;Lane, 2011), is attributed to the writings of Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558) in his book "Exotericarum Exercitationum", published in 1557 (McDonald y Hunt, 1982). As exposed by McDonald y Hunt (1982), mentions of this peculiar metal can also be found in chapter IV of the Libro Quarto De la Historia Natural y Moral De Las Indias by the Jesuit priest Ioseph de Acoſta (1540de Acoſta ( -1600, published in 1590 ( de Acoſta, 1590).…”

“…When Ulloa y Juan (1748) unveiled the high platinum content in Chocó and Barbacoas, an issue emerged concerning the platina's impact on the Royal Mint of Bogotá (see excerpt from Book VI, Chapter ingots). This conundrum, aptly termed "the platina problem", was viewed as a threat to the Royal Treasury (Lane, 2011;Aristizábal-Fúquene, 2015). The Pinto's platina, purportedly discovered in the Pinto River within the Province of Popayán-a region to which Chocó was once attached (Espinosa Baquero, 1986)-was considered an impurity that tainted the gold (Cano Borrego, 2016).…”

“…This information, however, presents a certain level of ambiguity. Lane (2011) addresses this by suggesting that the reiterated assertion that 'Pinto' denotes a river lacks substantial historical evidence. Instead, he posits that "Platina del Pinto" is perhaps an expression derived from the mining terminology of that era, which is still in use today.…”

“…Instead, he posits that "Platina del Pinto" is perhaps an expression derived from the mining terminology of that era, which is still in use today. It could allude to "painting the pan", a reference to platinum's distinctive characteristics (Lane, 2011).…”

“…The study of platinum evokes historical narratives, spanning from pre-Columbian eras to the chronicles of conquest (Hunt, 1980;Lane, 2011;McDonald y Hunt, 1982;Russell-Wood, 1951;Scott, 1992) it rekindles tales of naturalists and navigators (de Acosta, 1752;Juan and Ulloa, 1748;Boussingault, 1826;Bowles, 1789) (Ulloa y Juan, 1748;Boussingault, 1827;Bowles, 1789), and motivates the scientific community to craft geological models for comprehending its genesis (Cabri et al, 2022;Gunn, 2014;McDonald y Hunt, 1982). Resembling more of a historical narrative and sparking the impetus for further rigorous scientific inquiry, this article inspects into the discovery of a dolomitized biosparite with high Pt and Au content now housed in the Museum of the Servicio Geológico de Colombia (Colombian Geological Survey, CGS) in the city of Medellín.…”