How do you get iridium?

Answer 1

Iridium is a member of the Platinum group of metals, and is one of the rarest elements in the Earths crust. There should have been more, but it dissolves in iron, so most if it will lie in the Earths core.

As a metal it has a remarkable set of properties - towards the top of most property lists. You should explore these for yourself.

[A remarkable piece of work by the Alvarez's discovered an Iridium anomaly in the world's crustal rocks, and this was eventually traced to a meteoric impact about 65 million years ago, and the cause of a mass extinction of many of the genera and species of that time. [Dinosaurs the spectacular example].

This meteorite impacted near Chixculub in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, and the meteor would have been about 10km diameter.]

Answer 2

Iridium is a rare metal that is typically obtained as a byproduct of nickel mining and processing. It can also be found in platinum ores. Mining companies specifically target these sources to extract iridium as part of their operations.