Platinum is found in a small number of locations across the United States, with nearly all domestic production coming from a single mining complex in Montana. The U.S. produced an estimated 2,900 kilograms of platinum in 2023, roughly 1.6% of the global supply of 180,000 kilograms. That makes the country heavily reliant on imports, which is why platinum now appears on the federal Critical Minerals List.
Montana’s Stillwater Complex
The Stillwater Complex in south-central Montana is the only significant source of primary platinum mining in the United States. Operated by Sibanye-Stillwater, the complex includes two underground mines: the Stillwater Mine and the East Boulder Mine, both located in the Beartooth Mountains. These mines tap into a layered band of igneous rock that formed deep underground over a billion years ago, where platinum and palladium concentrated as the molten rock slowly cooled and solidified.
Palladium actually dominates production at Stillwater, with platinum as the secondary metal. The ore body runs roughly 28 miles along the northern edge of the complex. While the deposit is nowhere near as large as the massive platinum reserves in South Africa or Russia, it remains the only place in the U.S. where platinum group metals are mined as the primary product rather than a byproduct of something else.
Alaska’s Historic Platinum Placers
The Goodnews Bay district in southwestern Alaska was once the only commercial source of platinum in the entire country. Platinum placers (loose grains deposited in stream gravels) were discovered there in 1926, and mining began the following year. For decades, operators used small-scale methods before graduating to dragline excavators and a dredge. The platinum recovered from Goodnews Bay was remarkably pure: roughly 82% platinum by weight, with iridium making up about 11% and smaller amounts of osmium, rhodium, and palladium.
Commercial mining at Goodnews Bay wound down by the 1970s, and no active operations exist there today. Geologists have noted that no major underground source of the platinum was ever identified. The grains found in the streams likely eroded from ultramafic rock that has since largely disappeared. Small, high-grade pockets may still exist, but large-scale deposits in the area are considered unlikely.
Elsewhere in Alaska, Bureau of Mines studies found platinum and palladium concentrations in mafic and ultramafic rock samples collected from the Rabbit Creek area in northwestern Alaska. These rocks are prospective for platinum, palladium, and copper, though no commercial mining has developed from those findings.
Michigan’s Eagle Mine
The Lundin Eagle Mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is the country’s only primary nickel mine, and it produces platinum as a profitable byproduct. The mine generates nickel and copper concentrates through a flotation process, and the platinum group metals ride along in the nickel concentrate. Recovery rates reach about 76% for platinum and 84% for palladium, yielding roughly 7,000 ounces of platinum and 5,500 ounces of palladium per year. Those aren’t large numbers globally, but they represent a meaningful secondary source of domestic supply.
Proposed Projects in Minnesota
Minnesota’s Duluth Complex, a massive formation of copper- and nickel-bearing rock stretching across the northeastern part of the state, contains trace amounts of platinum group metals. Several proposed mining projects there would recover platinum as a byproduct.
The Twin Metals Minnesota project plans to use gravity concentration to capture up to 65% of the precious metals from copper-nickel ore. The NewRange Copper Nickel project targets ore containing about 0.067 grams per ton of platinum, with projected recovery rates near 74.5%. The Tamarack project, further south in central Minnesota, has indicated platinum grades of 0.34 grams per ton, with some sections reaching 3.65 grams per ton of combined platinum group metals. At Tamarack, the platinum group metals would simply report to the nickel concentrate and be sold to the smelter for credit, with no dedicated extraction step.
None of these Minnesota projects are currently in production. Permitting for new mines on federal land requires compliance with the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act, among other statutes. The regulatory process for large copper-nickel mines in Minnesota has been lengthy and contested.
Oregon and Other Western Occurrences
Small amounts of platinum occur in placer deposits scattered across the western states. In southern Oregon, the Bureau of Land Management has considered a proposal for placer mining of gold, silver, and platinum on public land near Cave Junction in Josephine County. The proposed operation would work unconsolidated gravel deposits in an area that had been mined previously, without chemicals or solutions. Silver and platinum are both classified as critical minerals, which has supported interest in domestic production from even small-scale sites like this.
Platinum occurrences have also been documented in parts of California, Wyoming, and other western states, typically in ultramafic rock formations or in stream gravels eroded from them. These occurrences are generally too small or too low-grade to support commercial mining, but they reflect the same geological pattern: platinum concentrates in dense, iron- and magnesium-rich rocks that formed deep in the earth’s crust or upper mantle.
Recycling as a Domestic Source
The U.S. actually recovers more platinum from recycling than from mining. Catalytic converters in gasoline and diesel vehicles are the largest source of secondary platinum. When vehicles are scrapped, the converters are collected and processed to extract the platinum group metals embedded in their ceramic cores. Petroleum refining catalysts and chemical process catalysts also contribute significant volumes of recycled platinum. As early as 1998, the U.S. was recycling an estimated 7,690 kilograms of platinum annually, a figure that exceeded domestic mine output at the time and continues to do so.
Why the U.S. Imports Most of Its Platinum
With domestic mines producing under 2,900 kilograms per year and global production near 180,000 kilograms, the U.S. supplies less than 2% of the world’s platinum. South Africa dominates global production, followed by Russia and Zimbabwe. American demand for platinum in catalytic converters, aerospace alloys, chemical refining, and petroleum processing far outstrips what domestic mines and recycling can provide.
That gap is the reason platinum appears on the 2025 Critical Minerals List. The Energy Act of 2020 defined critical minerals as those essential to economic or national security with a supply chain vulnerable to disruption. Platinum meets both criteria. A single domestic primary producer (the Stillwater Complex) and heavy reliance on imports from a small number of countries make the supply chain particularly fragile. The proposed copper-nickel projects in Minnesota and Michigan’s byproduct recovery help at the margins, but the fundamental picture is one of dependence on foreign sources for a metal the U.S. economy cannot easily do without.