I think everyone here is confusing of 'total supply' with 'supply available for purchase'. There is an analogy : the US bullion reserves are something like 12,

I think everyone here is confusing of 'total supply' with 'supply available for purchase'. There is an analogy : the US bullion reserves are something like 12,000 tons of Gold. Obviously if this was all offered for sale at once, then the price of gold would crash. But it doesn't, because they don't. Assuming someone is sitting on a massive lump of platinum, the market price would only be affected if they chose to dump it all on the market at once. Knowledge that the large supply of platinum exists wouldn't cause the market to crash. There would likely be some effect of releasing more supply of platinum onto the market, but the company wouldn't be stupid enough to offer it all for sale at once. They would hold it in reserve and sell it according to demand. So yes, increased supply would affect prices. No, it wouldn't cause chaos. Of course, this assumes that whomever is in charge has the discipline to do it properly. Perhaps, though, human frailty would win out and your scenario would come to pass. For this, we can look back to the Spanish conquest of the gold and silver mines of South America.