Road Dust Contains Platinum

Road dust contains platinum, a metal that is worth about $5,000 a pound!

Hazel Prichard, a British geologist (rock scientist), discovered this in 1998. Prichard knew that modern cars contain platinum in an antipollution device under the car.

Gases from the car's exhaust flow into the device. There, platinum causes a chemical reaction--it changes the toxic gases into less harmfull chemicals.

Prichard figured that some platinum must fall off onto the road. So she swept up a sample of road dust. Back at a lab, she found traces of platinum mixed with the dirt. Now, Prichard is testing different ways to get the valuable metal out of the dust!