The conditions [acid used, presence of chloride and tin(II)] for the extractive separation and spectrophotometric determination of palladium and platinum as the dithizonates Pd(HDz)(2) and Pt(HDz)(2) have been examined. In the absence of stannous chloride platinum does not undergo extraction. Conditions for the separation and determination of these metals in the presence of mercury, gold and copper, which are also extracted with dithizone into carbon tetrachloride or chloroform under the conditions suitable for palladium (1M sulphuric acid/0.1M hydrochloric acid), have been defined. The mercury and gold dithizonates are formed quickly and can be removed before the palladium and platinum compounds have had time to form. They can be decomposed with iodide. Copper dithizonate is decomposed by reduction with tin(II). The proposed procedure has been applied to the determination of palladium in technical platinum metal.