Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1903-01-08
PLATINUM IN OUR PLACERS
Geo. +. Smith Tells How to Save
This Valuable Metal.

This Valuable netal.
It was the good fortune of a Courier
representative few days ago to have
an interesting interview with Walter
y. Smith. the representative of the
welsbach Gas Fitting company, Of
Philadelphia, who have been expert
menting and operating for platinum in
Josephine county for the past year and
longer These people have been very
quietly at work and but little has
been known to the outside world re-
garding their operations. "We have
made success of our experiments and
tests and are now ready to tell the
placer miners Of southern Oregon how
it is done, said Mr. Smith to the
Courier man, as he puffed his cigar
with the air Of one who has accom-
plished something of which he feels
proud.
The Welsbach Gas Fitting Company
use vast amount Of platinum in the
manufacture Of their various articles
and as they are experiencing consider
able difficulty in keeping a supply Of
the metal and its growing scarcity is
making it more valuable each pass
ing season, they have started out pros
pecting and mining for the metal for
their own good. For a number Of
years past the placer miners Of the
western Josephine districts have been
finding quantity of an unknown
metal IN their sluices at cleanup
time The metal was mixed with the
black sand and the miners being
ignorant Of its identity and value threw
it from their sluicos The Welsbach
company heard of this unknown metal
Icing found in the placer diggings Of
western Josephine county and sent
some of their representatives over TO
investigate. 1t was asceriained that
the strange metal which the miners
had been carclessly throwing aside
was platinum, and when the miners
were told that the metal was valuable
as gold, they opened their eyes in
wonderment But the next problem
that confronted the miner was how to
separate the platinum from the black
sand. Mr.. Smith and his associates
set about unraveling this and now
have the problem solved. 1.-THE sys
TEN is as flexible as a baby's gown, "
said Mr.. Smith, "there is not a
placer miner in this section of the
state but that can mine platinum with
his gold and with no extra expense,
if he will bat follow the plans that
we will give to any Of them free Of
charge. Our people are desirous of
stimulating and encouraging platinum
mining wherever the metal is found,
and will aid any miner in putting in
appliances for saving it where he
knows the metal exists, / believe
that every mine in southern Oregon
situated ON old channels-and nearly
all are-contain platinum. The metal
is found with the black sand. Our
experiments and work thus far have
been carried on only in the Waldo dis.
tric', but we will operate in a num-
ber of other districts in Josephine
county before another season. | sin
cerely believe that when all things
are clearly understood, the miners of
this section will find that they are
just saving one-half of the values Of
their diggings. They will have the
idea that gold is the only thing, and
their appliances are built to save
gold alone. How much better it
would be for them to save all the
metals when it can be done with no
additional expense.
The manner in which platinum is
saved from the diggings is very sim
pie. 1t consists, practically speak
ing, of adding system of undercur-
rents, similar to the ones some of the
large mines have in for saving flour
gold, to the sluices, by the putting in
of these undercurrents the platinum
can be mined and saved at the same
time with the gold. a number of the
larger hydraulic mines of the sur
rounding districts have already ar.
ranged to put in platinum appliances
aud will make the saving of this metal
a permanent feature of their business
in the future.
The Courier man was shown a flask
of platinum that Mr.. Smith had tax
ON from the mines of Waldo. The
metal has much the appearance of
coarse powder, with u slightly metallic
lustre. From the success being met
with in mining aud saving the metal
10y those who have been operating
here during the past year, it seems
most probable that platinum will
become an important feature Of the
mineral industry OF southern Oregon.
W. Ii. Hubert editor of the Glen
dale News, was in town Monday ON %
business visit. Mr. Hubert has recent.
ly mado number of improvements on
his printing plant and is getting out
- paper that is a credit to his town.
Oregon Counties
The largest county in the state ci
Oregon is Harncy, with an area Of
99Sd miles; second in size is Malhour.
with u1Sl md third in .ig, d. T.l.