The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1905-05-15
RICH MINERALS IN BLACK SANDS.
New Mineral Source Contains More Val
liable Minerals Than Any Other
Known Mineral.

Portland, May is.-For the purpose
of investigating thoroughly the mineral
properties of a black sand, which is
found so commonly on the Pacific coast
that it has almost ceased to interest
Westerners, the United States govern
ment and the management OF the Lewis
and Clark Exposition viii cooperate this
summer, the government sending experts
to make tests, and the exposition man
agement providing a building in which
the tests are to be made. The build
ing, which is called the Black Sands
Annex, has been erected adjoining the
Mines and Metallurgy building at the
Fair. 1t is o0xl00 feet in size, con-
structed after the manner OF pavilion,
without side walls.
The Governments investigation Of the
black sands, which will be watched with
great interests throughout the Pacific
Northwest, because it seems likely TO
add another wealth source to the many
which this country already contains,
will be conducted under direction Of
Or, David +. Day, chief Of the Bureau
of Mining and Mineral Resources Of the
Geological Survey, who is enthusiastic
in regard To his task.
The investigation not only will dem
onstrate the wonderful mineral wealth
of the black sands, but win serve to
educate the miners as to the value Of
the minerals found in them" >said Dr.
Day. The ordinary miner is densely
ignorant Of the value Of any save the
best known minerals. He can take his
gold to the grocery and trade it for
potatoes, but neither he nor the grocer
knows how many potatoes an ounce OF
zircon, for example, should buy.
In the Black Sands Annex we will
carry on experiments to test the prac-
ticability of large number of machines
which have been made for the purpose
of removing valuable products from the
sands. In this way we expect to save
the miners the expense of costly trials
OF various devices. We will show every
step in the process-the sands from
which the minerals are obtained, the
separators that enable the minerals to
be obtained from the sands, and the
products made from the minerals.
The black sands are found in the wash
from serpentine mountains, and their
value as q mineral source lies in the
fact that they contain large variety
Of minerals, Nature having concentrate
ed the mineral wealth of d whole NOM.
tain in the sands. While IT would NOT
pay to try to extinct minerals scattered
az these were originally, it does pay
70 try to remove them after Nature has
done her part BY gathering them into
one mineral source
0f the products already known to
exist in this new mineral source. plati-
mum, which at present is more valuable
than gold, Is found luther abnpdantlv.
Crude platinum is now worth about
$2l an ounce, while gold brings S2O. 63.
Another valuable product, which az pres
emit has no fixed price, is tantalun.
substance which, according to Or. Day.
within ten years will take the place
OF carbon in the manufacture of fla
ments for electric light. Other products
OF the sandsin clude osInium, a product
somewhat similar in its properties 10
tantalum, and adapted to the same pur-
pose; a natural alloy of nickel and iron
which may be used in its natural state
for electro plating; magnetic or mag
netic iron; chromite, which is used 70
give deep green to the enamel Of
porcelain; such gems as garnets and
topazes, and the mineral monozite. m.
tile and zircon. Monozite contains from
five to ten per cent Of thorium. a sub
stance which glows when heated. ana
which y used in conjunction with zircon
IN making incandeseent gas lamps.