Mohave County miner., 1918-07-20
RECOVERY OF PLATINI1M

lacking Tn elegance from the viewpoint
 of ditcion, but it certainly never seem
 ed truer nor more significant than it does today when one contemplates the
 little South American republic of Co.,
 lombia controlling the worlds supply
 of platinum.
 Ashmore Russan gives some inter esting information concerning this in
 dustry in Colombia in The Wide World
 tLondon, June, 1918). We quote the
 following significant paragraphs from
 MT. Russans' contribution to this pub licatlCn:
 "As may be supposed, a metal which
 receives so much attention from gov
 crnment-it is, or was, a monopoly Tn Russia-must possess remarkable qualities, which may be briefly stated: Alloyed with one of its by-products,
 iridium, platinum is the hardest of metals. It will not tarnish or oxidize. and 1t is exceedingly ductile; it's melt ing point is very high; its electric re- slstance and chemical refractory uual- ities are correspondingly great.
 The basis of high explosives is a plentiful supply of acids, and particu- larly of strong fuming sulphuric acid, In the manufacture of which platinum may be said to be an essential. In deed, 1t is a very necessary article to winning the war.
 "TDe metal stands almost entirely alone in it's application to magnetos, the contact points of the ignition sys- tens of engines for aeroplanes, hydro planes and all kinds of petrol-motors, as also for standard thermo-couples, telephone and telegraph instruments and for other purposes almost as vii tai, but too numerous to mention.
 'Iss high price is due to it's great scarcity. Forty years ago it was worth twenty-five shillings an ounce.
 Alittle short of two centuries ago, in 1737, when first discovered in Co., lombia, 1t had no market value at all but was a perquisite of the monarchs of Spain, to whom Colombia belonged.
 "As the native finder received for the extraordinary properties briefly mentioned, no reward but was oblig- ed to surrender to the authorities any platinum which he discovered in wash ing gravel for gold he naturally found very little and only a small quantity was sent to Madrid until some sort of 9 reward became obtainable. As a matter of fact, the native miner gen orally threw away as valueless the platinum he found.
 No records are available of the first discovery of platinum in the Ural mountains of Russia, but that its orig inal source is dunite rock has been proved there, as elsewhere, but mo- where has what may be called the 'matrix" rock been found sufficiently rich to warrant the employment of and stamps for crushing it."
 "As the republic of Colombia, Rus sian platinum is obtained by dredging, sluicing or hydraulcing, or by native workers from alluvials-washed dirt and gravels-in which, during the course of ages, it has been deposited, put it would appear that the Russian deposits are becoming exhausted.
 "For some years previous to 1912 Russia yielded 95 per cent of the total 1f the worlds production, but the Russian yield, three hundred thousand roy ounces and eighty-one ounces in 1912, while in 1916 it was only seven weight thousand six hundred and ounces.
 Unfortunately no rich deposits of platinum have been found in the Brit sh Empire, far-flung though it is. It las a little. New South Wales and Tasmania in 1916 produced two hun lred and seventy-two ounces, and Canada sixty ounces.
 Perhaps only development is nec- ssary to multiply the output many ines. In the same year the United States produced from it's own ores even hundred and fifty ounces.
 ''There remains the Republic of Co., lmbia which in 1916 yielded twenty i've thousand ounces (most of which 7as sent to the United States to be efined), and is reported to have pro- uced about fifty thousand ounces in 917, of a value roughly of seven hun red and twenty-five thousand pounds l the United Kingdom, and of over ne million pounds sterling, or five lillion dollars, in the United States.
 "As the industry in Colombia is cry largely, indeed, almost entirely I the hands of native miners-white, rown and black-these people may be described as the modern 
 "Now and then they find a nugget, lch as are shown in comparison with