Mineral Sands

 

Mineral Sands unites earth from over 9,000 miles apart into a small sculpture that also becomes a new sample of ‘global’ land. South African soil, collected by the artist, has joined spoil from strip mines in KwaZulu-Natal, and leachate cleaned from the roads around Exeter, UK. 

 

This detritus contains traces of platinum, palladium and rhodium, extremely rare metals that are among the most valuable materials on earth. Predominantly mined in South Africa and shipped globally, they end up as a waste product on our streets, shed from catalytic converters. 

 

If it was possible to reclaim these metals from this leachate, this pollutive waste would become radically more valuable. The work takes its title from the name given to natural deposits of economically important heavy minerals, such as platinum, usually found in coastal areas, that are mined and traded globally.