The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-06-27
Romance of Platinum Minina.

Romance of Platinum Mining.
From the Wide World Magazine.
Platinum is the most costly Of the
precious metals, being worth over 500
an ounce to the finder. Being the hard
est OF metals, and possessing a very
high melting point, 1t has been COM
Wandered by the various govern
ments for use in the making of aero
plane and hydroplane engines and in
other d of war. 1t is, in fact, a
metal essential to winning the war.
The price of refined platinum in the
United States is five times the value of
gold, while at Columbian ports n on
the rivers of that republic, whence
steadily increasing quantities are be-
ing obtained, the price actually now
received for the crude metal by the ma
tive miners is the equivalent of 20
pounds 10 shillings per ounce. In con-
junction with Columbian platinum,
other rare metals are found and ex-
tracted in he process Of refining, such
as iridium, palladium, osmium (osmir-
idium), rhodium and ruthenium, all Of
which have special attributes, and are
correspondingly costly, some of them
closely approaching platinum in value.
AS may be supposed, a metal which
receives so much attention from gov
s;nnsn1ssmlt Is. q was q monopoly
able properties, which may be briefly
stated: Alloyed with one of it's by
products, iridium, platinum is the
hardest Of metals. 1t will not tarnish
or oxidize, and is exceedingly ductile;
its melting point is very high; its
electric resistance and chemical re-
fractory qualities are corresponding
ly great. To use n technical phrase,
dlnicult to express otherwise, 1t pos
sesses the owest co-efficient of ex-
pansion OF any metal; is said to have
a greater specific gravity-that Is, to
hn hnn Nrinr-thnf M nthnp Ennyvv
substance; is impervious to the corros-
i've action of oxygen or any other gas;
and, except in aqua regia "a combina~
ton Of nitric and hydrochloric acids),
1t is insoluble in acids.
The basis of high explosives is a
plentiful supply of acids, and particu-
larly of strong Tuning 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. The metal stands
almost entirely alone in it's applica-
ton to magnetos, the contact points of
the ignition system OF engines for aero
planes, h~ydroplanes, and all kinds OF
petrol motors, as also for standard
thermo couples, telephone and tele-
graph instruments, and for other pur-
poses, almost as vital, but too num-
erous to mention.
Its high price is due to its great
scarcity. Fifty years ago it was worth
20 shillings an ounce. A little short
or two centuries ago, in 1877, when
first discovered in Colombia, it had no
market value at all, but was a per-
quisite of the monarchs of Spain, to
whom Colombia belonged. AS the ma
tive finder received no reward, but
was Zig to surrender to the author
tiles any platinum which he had dis
covered in washing gravels for gold,
he naturally found very little, and only
n eKnanl1 1Y,n -. -z-A
until some sort Of reward became OBJ
tainable. AS a matter Of fact, the
native miner generally threw away as
valueless the platinum he found. AS
the washing Of the gravels was largely
carried out near the miners huts.
where later on the platinum and gold
were separated, many houses have re-
Gently been pulled down for the purpose
OF recovering from the earth below the
platinum which had been thrown away.
The earliest recorded price paid for
platinum was two pesos a pound, in
1888, or, say, about four shillings pres
ent currency for a quantity of precious
metal worth at this time 240 pounds
in the United Kingdom and $1,000 in
the United States. The next recorded
price was II plaster or pieces of
eight" per pound, which would be
equivalent to about SIS. In those early
days platinum was used for making
cups n other utensils, just as we use
pewter and Britannia metal, n some
times in place of bronze for statues.
AS platinum is indestructible and the
year 1900 is not so very long ago there
should be q considerable humble Of
exceedingly valuable cup jugs. ewers,
coffee pots and other articles still re-
naming in Spain, where the bulk of
his early platinum found its way, to
gay nothing of buets and statues. OF
the latter, two Of a king of Spain, one
IF nlrp n1Dtinnm the other pf nIDti-
mum alleged with copper are known
to nave been sent from Colombia as
gifts to the monarch they represented.
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 nowhere
has what may be called the "matriX'
rock been found sufficiently rich to
warrant the employment Of machinery
and stamps for crushing it. AS in the
republic of Colombia, Russian platinum
Is obtained by dredging. s~luicing or
hydraulicing, or by native workers.
from a luvials-washed dirt and
gravels-in which, during the course
of ages, it has been deposited, but it
would appear that the Russian de-
posits are becoming exhausted. For
some years previous to 1912 Russia
yielded 95 per cent of the total OF the
worlds production, but the Russia:
Yield, goo, 900 troy ounces in 1911, fell
to lS5, 1891 ounces in 1912, whilst in 1916
it was only 1865 ounces
No rich deposits Of platinum nave
been found in the British empire, far
flung though it is. IT has n little. New
South Wales and Tasmania in 1916
produced 272 ounces, and Canada GO
ounces. In the same year the United
States produced from its own ores $50
ounces. There remains the republic OF
Colombia, which in 1916 Yielded 1000