 Chabaneau realized that the sheer difficulty of working with platinum would lend value to objects made from it . He and Don Joaquín Cabezas carried on a lucrative business producing platinum ingots and utensils . This marked the beginning of what is now known as the " platinum age in Spain , " during which nearly 18 @,@ 000 troy ounces of malleable platinum were produced in a span of 22 years . The platinum age ended in 1808 when Chabaneau 's laboratory was destroyed during Napoleon 's second invasion . 
