New Britain herald., 1918-06-22
VIEING FOR PLATINUM
Most Valuable Mineral Figures In
 Intrigue Among Nations Spies Worth $1O5 An Ounce.

Washington, June 22.-New chap ters in the romance of platinum, once thrown away as waste but now the most sought-after metal in the world, have been written since the war began. Nations are fighting for if. Adventures are risking their
 lives to obtain it. Women spies and diplomatic agents are playing the game of international intrigue to con- trol even an ounce of the "noble metal,' as it is known to geologists valuab bIc has it become and so ne ccssary to the prosecution of the world war.
 The United States government re- gently took a hand in the game by communicating all unWorked platinum in this country, setting therefor a price of $1O5 an ounce, as compared with $22.S5 ten years ago. Even this action, however, has not obtained sufficient of the metal for war pur- poses. Officials who failed to heed the warnings of platinum experts at the beginning of the war are wondering how they can retrieve their error in not vigorously meeting the national necessity by using every legitimate means to obtain platinum. For, the total amount of known platinum throughout the world is only 4.000,- 900 ounces. of which about one-fourth is in the United States Much of that is virtually irreclaimable through use in dental work and personal jewelry, and the output, since the Russian de- bacle, has fallen to a fraction of what it was in times of peace.
 It is the last reason which is giving officials so much concern. Russia has been the source of most of the worlds platinum and, in 1913, was credited With a production of 25O,OO Troy ounces, Column bia with 15,O00, New South Wales and Tasmania 1,275, United States California and Oregon being almost the only pro- ducing states) only 4S3, Borneo and Sumatra 200 and Canada 50.
 The German invasion of Russia gave the enemy the opportunity of replenishing his stocks of platinum, 10 the detrim ent of the Allies. Mining in Russia virtually has ceased now, even if the metal could be shipped out of the country, and the world looks to Columbia for platinum. Suggestions for a governm ent monopoly of plat mum have been advanced in the Columbian congress. Whatever action
 
 mean wealth for the southern repub- lie.
 One of the most spectacular feats of the war was the concentration of 10000 ounces of platinum in Russia by a young American mining en- gineer, attache ed to the embassy there, who recognized the importance of ob- taining the metal. Each precious ~ioly brought half way across the world to the United States and turned over to the governmen for use in the manu- fracture of sulphuric acid, @ constit- 1 uent of explosives, for the manufac- ture of contact points in electrical ap- paratus and other uses necessary to war. An interesting history of plat l mum is given by the American Domestic Commerce.
 Platinum was discovered in what is now Colombia in 1735 by a Spaniard 1 named Don Antonio de Ulloa, who ac- companied a French scientific expedi- l tion, and his account of it was the i first information regarding the m fetal i to be brought to the attention of ] Europeans. It's resistibility to acids 1 and the difficulty of working it were i remarked upon, but it was not con- 1 sidered to be nearly as precious as gold, and was used at times by coun- terfeiters as a basis for coins. It was not until the middle of the nineteenth l century that the demand for platinum for use in chemical laboratories and for electrical uses brought it's value up to the point where it ranked as one of the most precious metals.
 In the placer mining of gold in Colombia it was formerly thrown away as waste, and when the rise in price made it more valuable than gold 1 the ground on which the Waste had