Professor at St Petersburg University on the radioactive isotopes of platinum jewellery in the Heinrich Terahertz podcast
The guest of the 14th episode of the popular science podcast of St Petersburg University is Olga Iakubovich, Professor in the Department of Geochemistry at St Petersburg University. She focuses on how geologists study minerals, how to mine gold with your own hands, and how many minerals remain in Russia.
Olga Iakubovich spoke about how ancient people had become the first geologists in the world. They discovered silicon, which was well suited for making tools and household items and therefore made their camps near silicon deposits. Today, geologists are striving to simplify the task of searching for and transporting minerals.
The only difference is that over time mineral reserves have become thinner and today we have to drill deep wells to find and extract them, whereas in the times of ancient people, many minerals simply lay underfoot. The methods for searching for minerals, according to Olga Iakubovich, are being improved and today can often help find the necessary minerals at a depth of kilometers in unexplored lands.
Olga Iakubovich is the winner of the annual prize of the President of the Russian Federation in the field of science and innovation for young scientists in 2023. She was awarded for developing and improving the methods for determining the age of minerals using helium concentrations. The scientific team led by Olga Iakubovich is the first in the world to prove that this method can be used to accurately measure the age of platinum, gold, and pyrite. Since pyrite is a mineral that is present in any type of deposit, the method developed by the St Petersburg University scientist quickly and inexpensively determines how promising a particular natural site is for discovering large deposits of valuable metals.
The reserves of all discovered minerals are concentrated in Russia and many deposits have not yet been explored or developed, she said. Such territories may be useful and promising in the future. Many minerals may have unexpected and unknown properties, for example, platinum.
"Natural platinum consists of six isotopes and one of them is alpha radioactive decay. Naturally, platinum is used in jewellery: rings, for example. Yet, platinum contains one radioactive isotope, but its half-life is 450 billion years. Our planet is four billion years old. It’s so slow that we can say it will never ever happen," said Olga Iakubovich.