The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-03-07
DEMAND FOR PLATINUM
AND SOURCES OF SUPPLY
FOUND WITH GOLD IN PLAcERS
OF CALIFORNIA AND IN
SOUTHERN OREGON.

are generally found as native metal:
more or less alleged with one another
They are rarer than gold, and some o.
them, especially platinum, iridium ant
palladium, are now more valuable ant
In greater demand than gold. Be.
cause Of their difficult solubility, theii
fusibility only at very high tempera-
lures and their extreme hardness
some of them are especially suitable
for use in the chemical and electrical
Industries.
One of the least important uses for
platinum, and one that has taken a
large part of the output, Is in making
jewelry. One of it's most important
present uses is In making sulphurit
acid, for through catalytic action II
brings about the combination of ma
terials required to form that acid. Sui
phuric acid is required for making
fertilizers and explosives and is thus
essential to sustain the feeding and
fighting powers OF our nation.
Under normal conditions the Unit
ed States requires about $4,000 ozs
Of platinum metals a year 1t pro-
duces only a few thousand ounces and
is meeting increasing difficulties in i'm
porting sufficient quantities, There
fore these metals should be applied
only to their most essential uses.
From Ural Mountains.
The platinum metals are found In
quantities of economic value at only a
few places. The bulk of the worlds
production has heretofore been fur
nished by the placers of the Ural
mountains, in Russia, but the pro-
duction from this source is decreas-
ing, Colombia is becoming an in
creasingly large producer. In the
United States there has been small
but steady production of platinum fol
many years from the gold placers OF
northern California and southern Ore
gon.
In these new emergencies we find
that we have not utilized all our nat
ural resources and that we have lack
ed the maginaton to foresee the value
of some of these resources, Henry G..
Hanks, a former state mineralogist of
California, as far back as 1884 made
the following statement:
If the miners could be persuaded
to collect the platinum minerals an in
dustry might be established of con-
ci1 .artn l.,
reason why platinum should not be
manufactured in San Francisco and
the American demand in part or in
whole supplied from this state"
1t is said that the platinum metals
were thrown away by the miners in
the early days because there was no
emand for them, The things that are
thrown away by one generation, how
ever, are picked up and saved by the
next, and the work of saving these
valuable metals is now in progress.
In view of the increasing difficulty
OF obtaining sufficient supplies of these
Platinum resources was begun by the
United States geological survey. de-
partment of the Interior during the
field season of 1917. The work in
with the California state mining bu-
reau.
Wide Distribution.
Most of the platinum that has been
in hA hns
placer Mines and much of it has been
derived from placers that were work.
ed primarily for their content Of gold
such as those in California and Ore
gon. In these places the platinum
metals are associated with the gold
The important facts regarding their
occurrence are their widespread dis
tribution and their lack of concentra-
ton in high value at any particular
locality. In most placers the proper
ton of the platinum metals to the
gold Is very small, At one placer
where large quantities of gravel were
being handled the proportion of plat
mum to gold was about one tenth of
per cent by weight. In few small
operations the proportion of platinum
was reported to be equal to the gold,
and in still fewer it was reported to
be more than the gold.
The problem of increasing the pro-
duction of the platinum metals is
closely involved with the production of
placer gold and may be resolved into
the problems of saving a larger pro-
portion of platinum from the ground
now mined and of finding new produc-
tive areas. California has been the
best area in the world for developing
methods of placer mining. The Golden
Age of hydraulic and drift mining,
however has passed away. The meth
cd now in use, which handles the
greatest quantity of gravel and saves
the most gold, is dredging.
Dredging.
The modern dredge, which s cap
able of handling as much as 100000
cubic yards of gravel month, has be-
come a highly efficient tool, but it is
capable of still further Improvement.
If the gravel is clean and compare
lively free from sediment, the dredge
RECEIVERS most OF the gold and platin-
um from the gravel that is handled,