The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-07-22

y VA. ~. -... y,
E,,nada much effort to save It. This has
See,, owing to the Ignorance regnrdinE
the metal and its vuluo, and also 70 sonle
suns,,ccess ful attempts to dispose Of it. No :.
long ago a. miner from Oregon SEN ~
tho east three skins Of the sen otter any
&twentv-fivo pounds Of platinum. He got
something like $1,000 ID skin for the Of t,
tiers, But only renllned 81 q pound Tor ny !,
platinum. How he was efra ftllt ! ,t ~
hot know; but at tho present prices ~, ~
platinum should have brought allfr hu Ivy
5000. S5s
Platinum and Gold.
II T3v5 tho Use OF the sepala ting tables ell e.
$ployed BY Dr. Day for getting the metals !,
from the black sand, the grains q platl,
nm mn gold are tnkon out mt q cost
az few cents per ton. The TIN n u'1
which has formerly gone to waste 81 e can
now be saved and WILL form g 2 ll = ,l,e
TINT by-product Of most placer m 7, ,'e !.
when found in connection with golti,#1't.
IAN !, ms IN tho slulces with the gold and
other heavy materialsi In panning, ~
vii, even stay behind the gold In the pan,
1T ia known by its great wcl 81 l1s' l l,'
white color, and It's resistance to nitric
acid. lin general the platinum grains z, are
smaller than gold grains and large nu s.
ge Is arc rn re. ~ }ia,8'tg$S
The new experiments with the to bles
to be used for saving the orc VII III result
in an enormous increase Of gold %. Pm Cyl,
tain OF our placer mines So for tho lifloss
of the gold saved has been by means q
I :, orc,,rv Il s1i,lce boxes. The dirt con-
ttaininr the gold has; been washed lint. lint.
these boxes and saved with qli'cK 9 y
sIA great deal Of the gold, however, o lr
biologists now find ,33 has never s$l peen
touched by the quicksilver. It has 4n'eh
coated with copper or Their lnelals Wlt'la
resist the action Of mercury and mas b 'eh
thrown away as was te.3 VI !.
Saved 70 Cents Lost $59.
Try Day showed me n little bottle con- 2.
stninine what looked like grains 33} an
4 snrnns 5of copper which he told me were
grains OF almost pure gold. SAID he
s@it..lhe man who owned 4 tho mine from ON
which this gold was taken was SAVING
~ cents for every ton Of dirt wa wa shea,
while he was throwing % way Ss0 worth g !,
/ &c gold 8 fusc / copper. When specl-
mans 81 the waste were sent to me I
thought they were copper. / tested them
with nitric acid, with no result iil tne 'l
+ treated them with llydrochloric acid. and
they began y to look n little more like
gold, and when showed them to my
assistant he said at once that they were
gold. and hc took them ana melted them
down into q gold button, which was
worth $50 an ounce.
t',rhere Is q great deal OF gold In the
black sand that has never been gotten
out" continued. DR.. Day, "and there is
much black sand, containing quantities
5of gold, which has not been worked be-
cause the proportion OF sand was so
great that 1t was hard to handle, and
8themlners preferred to go to other places,
where tho sand was less in quantity. even
though It contained less gold. BY run
ming the black sand over the Wiley,
#Pinder ana other tables we find that We
can save from 95 to 9S per cent. OF the
gold and pla tinum,3 and at the same t1me
separate the other metals, so that they
can be reduced, Y s1. X tx I. NJ 81
An Iron Nugget as Big as Lake
Superior. 81
1.-THE gold and platinum are BY no
means the only values in the black
sand, !" continued DR. Day. There are
also metals Of industrial worth contain
Ing enormous possibilities. a great Part
I OF tho sand is made up OF magnetic iron.
which, by a little electric furnace made
last year, We arc able to turn into &ex-
ccllent steel. IN
BIZ All along tho Pacific coast from Puget
Sound to tho southern end OF California
this black sand exists In great quantities.
It Hes IN deposits back from the coast,
on Lodges and headlands. and is washed
up by the sea Mt every high tide. being
rolled over and over md thrown out upon
tho beach. In that sand, II 1t Ncre sep
ara ted from tho other minerals there is
enough iron to I'LL Lake Superior and
make It solid iron orc, This IL on tho
estimate Of working sands that contain
only ten pcr cent. of magnetic iron, pnd
some contain far more. Suppose We had
flye hundred furnaces situated along tho
coast and TINT zach should handle but
one hundred tons OF orc u day Alto
gethcr they would handle nifty thousand
tons per day, and at three hundred days
to the year have an annual output OF
fifteen million tons, Or about one-third
as much as the iroi, product OF tho whole
United States. That would make the
Pacific slope ono OF tho great Industrial
centers OF oH country. and also the
workshop for China, Japan and the res
mainder Of the Orient. Indeed the steel
tracks for China's now railroads may yet
como from the black sands Of the Pacific"
Smelling by Electricity.
Dr.. Day tells me that these iron sands
can be turned into steel by means OF
electricity at n lower cost than ord!-
nary iron can be smelted with coal, Only
very small amount u coke ~ needed
ana the electricity does tho work 1T flfty
csnls less per ton. This Is Very im-
portant TO tho Pacific coast, as " Is now