Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1906-01-11
RAILROAD REBATES BLACK Sand TESTED
EXPERIMENTS AT PORTLAND FAIR
VERY SUCCESSFUL.
Great Wealth In Sands of Oregon and
Washington Coasts. Contain Gold
and Platinum, and will Make Good
Steel. An Interes sting Report.

.
The possibly great economic import.
ance OF the black sand deposits on the
Pacific slope is emphasized in a letter
from the director of the geo 'ogical survey
to the secretary OF the interior, which
was recently transmitted to the senate
in response to resolution of that body.
Director Walcott expresses the opinion
that the needs of the United States for
platinum can be supplied from deposits
in this country, chiefly from the black
sands Of the Ore .on and Washington
coast.
Steel as a valuable by-product is also
mentioned as a strong possibility.
In the course of the investigation last
summer a circular letter was sent to all
the placer miners in the United States
(about 5000, inviting them % send to the
geological survey samples of the heavy
sands collected in placer gold mines.
"More than 900 such placer miners,
says Mr.. Walcott, promptly responded
with samples. which were at once assayed
for gold and platinum. Fu ther, these
samples were scrutinized closely to de.
tect the presence of various othe, miner
ais which have become industrially use.
ful within the last five years. Among
them are chronic iron ore, for the manu-.
facture OF paints, chrome steel and BIZ
chromate of potash; manazite and zircon,
for themanufacture of incandescent gas
and electric lights; magnetic iron ore, for
the manufacture of steel. and ESPECIALLY
tantalite and columbite, which have re-
Gently become very valuable in incandes-
cent electric lighting.
In addition to u seful minerals mention.
ed considerable supplies were indicated
Of such valuable minerals as corundnm,
cinnabar Quicksilver ore), tin ore, garnet
and others. It was found that platinum
occurs at mary localities where its pres
ence had not been suspected, and the
majority of the specimens were found to
contain gold in appreciable amount which
it had been impossible to extract, either
because the gold is very finely divided
(hour gold) or because it is coated with
iron oxide or othe, materials which pre-.
vent amalgamation (rusty or black gold)
"1n order TO determine whether these
vail able minerals could be extracted at
profit, number Of concentrating ma
chimes Of the best types were assembled
at Portland, Or. for Portland proved the
most central point for collecting the nee
essarily large quantities of these sands,
and during the dry season, when the
placer miners could not work, they could
assemble at the exposition and note the
results obtained.
"It was quickly found that from 95 to
SO per cent. of the gold and platinum
could readily he extracted from the black
sands simply by concentration on tables
Of the WiIfey, Pinder, Christensen and
Woodbury. types. 1t had been expected
that the sand would require PREPARATION
for these tables by special machine
known as the hydraulic classiier, hut
this machine proved unnecessary, inas
much as the sands of the sea beaches and
the heavy sands from sluice boxes, from
which the valuable ingredients, such as
fine gold, rusty gold and the useful min
erals alluded to above, could not possibly
be separated, proved to be in the best
condition possible for separation on
tables.
"These concentration experiments at.
tracted very much more attention than
was expected from the placer miners
Concentrating tables had never been used
in placer mining to any extent, but sew
eral hundred mines are now being equip.
ped with machines OF this character.
Several thousand miners visited the con.
centrating work during the summer, and
they were generally convinced that these
methods would apply to some sands, but
not necessarily to their own; therefore
many of them asked and received per.
mission to submit samples of their sands
as soon as the rainy season would afford
water for collecting them.
"The appropriation. designed to last
till the close of the exposition in Portland,
was made to last six weeks longer, and
when exhausted, at the end of November,
sands from more than 1000 localities had
been examined. Two preliminary reports
were published. Copies OF these have
not only been sent to the mining com.
panles interested, but have also been
posted in every postoffice in every county
where placer mining is carried"
no Cure Cold IN Slue Day