As a primary mineral product, platinum is an important strategic mineral in China, which is mainly used in the fields of automobile, jewelry, and chemical industry. In this study, a dynamic material flow analysis model of platinum in China for the period of 2016-2020 was constructed to quantitatively assess the anthropogenic flow and social inventory of platinum. Then the automotive industry was selected based upon the sectoral consumption approach to measure the end-of-life of platinum, and policy recommendations were made for the sustainable development and resource management of platinum based upon the findings. We found that:(1) China's platinum minerals are small and of low grade, and the available reserves and production of platinum ores are declining, with the national average grade of platinum being only 0.341 g/t;(2) the consumption and import dependence of platinum is largely increasing year by year, with the jewelry industry being the industry with the highest demand,and the stock and scrap of platinum in the automotive industry is also growing dramatically. All these findings indicate that we should explore new high-grade platinum mines and enter cooperative relationships with major platinum exporting countries; and that the future recycling potential in China is tremendous, while the improvement of the collection system of platinum-containing products after consumption can enhance the recycling of secondary resources to effectively recover platinum scrap, thus reduce the import dependence and well foster the sustainable use of platinum.

platinum  /  material flow analysis  /  recycling  /  end-of-life volume