New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1918-08-02
ORIGINAL PLATINUM
Mine IN COLOMBIA
Exports for Year 1917 Reached
Total Of So, 100000

The fact that platinum, that beau
tiful and very expensive metal Just
now worth about six times as much
as gold, was first discovered in South
America in a section of what is now
the Republic of Colombia is not ex-
actly a matter of common knowledge.
Furthermore, it may not be generally
known that the scientists, dentists,
and manufacturers of the most ex-
pensive jeWeiry in the United States
must now depend for their supplies
of the precious white gold" prac-
tlcally entirely upon the Colombian
mines, for the Russian sources of
supply are for the time being "out
of the game" Still, there's no immi-
nent danger of Colon bias resources
in platinum being exhausted, They
have been mining it down there for
$50 years, but the output seems to
be constantly increasing. AS an in
stance, according to the current num-
Der of the Bulletin of the Pan
American Union, Washington, D. c..
the exports Of the metal during the
past three years were valued as fol-
lows In 1915 at $607,500; 1916. at
1880 900: and for the year 1917 at
$2,160.000.
incidentally. it Is interesting to
note that at one time-and that not
SO very long ago-the crude platinum
grains that were mixed in with the
ore of certain gold mines in Colon
bia were regarded as a waste pro-
duct, and thrown away. DR.. Geo. F.
Kunz, Tiffanys great expert on pre-
cious stones and metals, in an article
recently contributed to the Bulletin
it as follows:
THE rejection Of platinum as
waste product in the operation of re-
fining gold led to some strange hap
penings III Colombia. The platinum
separated from the gold by the dry
or blowing" system was either cast
into the street or thrown through
cracks in the building where the
work was done. Later. when plati-
mum became valuable, a considerable
quantity OF the metal was thus dis
covered in Quibdo, capital of the
ChOCO district, where much gold re-
fining was done AS result the en-
tire town of some 1900 inhabitants
was turned into a mine, and the ma
tives were employed in working the
streets for the government, while
many property owners mined under
their houses. In one case a man
went so far as to tear down his store,
and was rewarded by recovering
enough platinum to rebuild on a
larger scale and clear $4,000 in Amer
lean gold besides.'
DR.. Kunz's article is rep1ete with
interesting information about plati-
mum and, among other things, he tells
how the world first learned of the ex-
istence of such a remarka BILE metal.
Tn view of the many uses to which
platinum can now be put and of it's
increasing value, it seems strange
that European knowledge of it's ex-
istence is dated not farther back
than 1885, when the South American
deposits, now within the limits of the
Republic of Colombia. were visited
by the Spanish traveller Don Antonio
de Ulloa, (1716-1795), who had been
appointed with Don Jorge Juan to
accompany a French scientific expe-
dition sent out by the government to
execute the measurement Of an arc
of the meridian on the plain of
Quito. Although the first publication
of Ulloa's observations was made in
his "Relacion historical del viaje a la
America meridional," issued in two
folio volumes at Madrid in 1748,
sneciuens Of the new metallic ore
had already been brought TO Eng
land from jamaica as early as 1741,
by Charles Wood. al English metal
1lrc-iqt. the material having reached
him bx way of Cartasena in the then