Criminalistic identification of PGM-containing products of mining and metallurgical companies

Analytical Proof of Origin for Raw Materials

“…A method called "complex procedure for establishing the nature and source of origin of precious metal-bearing products of mining and metallurgical operations" (CIP) was developed in Russia for the source determination of stolen material containing platinum group elements (PGE) [28]. A significant amount of PGE-bearing material from Russian and South African production sites is illegally supplied to refineries worldwide for further processing.…”

Global developments in forensic geology

“…In southern Africa, a large proportion of the materials at risk are converter mattes from the smelters, which are smuggled to refineries, mainly in Europe, and the onus is on the producer to prove origin. In order to combat this illicit trade, an internationally accepted method for fingerprinting of recovered mine and plant prod-ucts, with collaboration between South African (FSL, now University of Pretoria, and Anglo Research) and Russian producers (ENFSI, 2008), has been implemented, both in Russia (Perelygin et al, 2008) and in South Africa, in order to return recovered material to the legal owners, and enabling successful prosecution in international courts.…”

The role of forensic geology in the illicit precious metals trade

“…Merkle and Franklyn, 1999) but little had been done on looking at the intermediate products of the production of platinum group metals until the problem of theft reached alarming proportions (UNICRI Report 2016). The major problems were identified in Russia, which was due mainly to the theft of material from their precious metal refineries (Perelygin et al, 2008) and in South Africa (Gastrow, 2001).…”

“…The identification of recovered mine and plant products is not a new concept and has been put in practice by several mining houses (Perelygin et al, 2008;CIP Project report, 2008;UNICRI Report, 2016). An upsurge in the platinum group metal prices from the mid 1990's onwards resulted in an increase in the theft of platinum refinery and smelter products, with two of the major producers, Anglo American Platinum and Norilsk Nickel, started applying standard processes in a systematic manner to routinely identify recovered platinum products.…”

“…The stolen materials are generally refined in countries far from source and usually without local sources of raw materials. In order to stem the illicit trade in these stolen materials, fingerprinting of recovered mine and plant products has been implemented (Perelygin et al, 2008;ENFSI, 2008) with the aim of returning recovered material to their legal owners, and enabling successful prosecution in court.…”