A new technique using liquid oxygen has allowed scientists to levitate metals such as platinum, potentially providing a new technology for the mining and pharmaceutical sectors.

The team at the University of Nottingham used a mix of oxygen and nitrogen in liquid and gas states to levitate items including heavy metals such as gold and platinum.

According to the team led by Professor Laurence Eaves and Professor Peter King, in the University's School of Physics and Astronomy, a safe and optimised mixture works by increasing the buoyancy of a specially designed superconducting magnet.

By using the application, miners could benefit by being able to accurately filter precious metal from its surrounding rock and soil.

Professor King commented: "You can use this technology to accurately sort minerals…The method can discriminate between components with very small differences in density enabling you to extract the precious parts you require."

Even though metals such as platinum are heavy the process allows relatively low-power magnets to be used.

The lab is the only one specialising in zero-gravity experiments and is being used by a host of research groups at present.