(Session 1)The precious metals we prefer to ignore

摘要

Modern metallurgists quantify precious metals through spectroscopic analysis of solidand solution samples and use this as a method to follow the reaction pathway of extractionprocesses. If spectroscopy does not show up gold or platinum, then clearly it does not exist.In contrast, metallurgists a century ago relied more on sensory observation to track reactionpathways and the recovery of physical precious metal as evidence for the presence of gold orplatinum in an ore. Therefore, if spectroscopy of an ore processed in any form does not showup gold or platinum, but physical precious metal is recovered, the outcome is dismissed as anerror or fraud, because precious metal cannot be created. What would happen if preciousmetals have a distorted valence electron structure not yet studied by science? Such specieswill not mimic the usual chemical reactions of normal precious metals, they may not evenbehave like metals, and they will not be detectable by spectroscopy. They will certainly notbe studied, as no tenure track academic could afford such controversy. This paper reviewssome of the pseudo-science available on this subject, present own observations, and concludethat there is sufficient evidence to stimulate further research.