The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-09-17
THE IDAHO REPUBLICAN

our beets as we did some years age
but we. are not raising twice the ton.
mage. When the superintendent OF
the dredge doubled his income with
the same expenditure of labor he was
satisfied. 1t was great victory, but
he did not keep on investigating
Finally another miner came along
and he was one of these noisey fell
lows, who was always trying to tell
you something. The superintendent
did not listen to him. Haunt he
been there all these years. Didn t
he know more than any newcomer
on the job? Certainly he did. All
this nonsense about the gold dust
being oily or being coated with some
thing that kept it from beirg ANAL
gamated with the quick silver was
so much sense. This newcomer
had theory that there was more
gold in that gravel than anybody
knew about. He had some ideas of
chemistry and he kept working to
prove it. He said part of the grains
OF gold and part of the gold nuggets
were coated with something-he
called it oXidized. The gold dust in
the sluice boxes came in contact with
quick silver and was capt red, as
the miners say, and held until they
took it out of the sluice boxes. This
new miner said that every grain of
gold that was coated over or oXidized
was lost because the quick silver did
not attack the gold and hold it.
There was no affinity. The thin film
or oxidizing over the outside pre-
vented the quick silver from getting
hold of the gold at all. If they could
put something into the water, some
acid that would eat off the thin film
or oxidizing, the quick silver would
catch the gold and hold it. Month
after month this fellow preached the
doctrine of oxidized gold being pres
ent in quantities ten times as great
as the free gold that they were get
ting. But he had not the chemicals
and the acids by which he could
prove, and it took long time to get
the superintendent sufficiently inter-
ested to send out samples and have
tests made so that they found out
his theory was correct During all
the years that they were making
these experiments and convincing the
superintendent of these new facts,
the dredge was headed slowly for
Buckley Bar at the head of the
gulch. The five acre tract where
they had taken out a million by the
wasteful method and where the vast
deposit of treasure still lies, i'm
mensely richer than what they are
now working. The old dredge had
not the facilities for handling the
acid in the sluice boxes to overcome
the oxidized gold so they are still
letting that go over into the tailings
but they are working on a plan to
save it. They have found that by
building very large steel dredge,
a dredge that will cost a half mil
lion dollars, they can add the IA
cilities for getting the rest of that
gold 1t amounts to a tremendous
amount. I think they claim that
they are only saving about one
twentieth or one-twenty-fifth of the
gold they are handling. When they
handle twenty-five hundred dollars
a day and save that amount there is
fifty or sixty thousand dollars worth
Of gold dust and fine nuggets that
s going into the tailings. So they
are working to build the new dredge
and get it into operation to save all
he rest of that money, and the plan
8 to go back and eventually wash
I'll of that gravel the second time.
A Still Greater Discovery
But science is making greater dis
'overies all the time. A. new min
'ral has been discovered in the sand
mixed with the gravel and gold
which they have been handling. 1t
s called platinum black. People
Who know anything about the diff
'ulties of placer mining on Snake
liver know that the miners have al
Ways felt that the black sand in the
,ravel was the great obstacle they
lad to overcome. 1t was the thing
hat defeated them in their efforts
o capture the gold. 1t was almost
s heavy as gold and as fine as gold
nd they could not separate it sue
essfully from the gold. The same
rouble existed in Stanley Basin,
where they are operating the dredge
nd the operators have been cursing
he black sand all these years Now
develops that the platinum black
xisting in that black sand is worth
more than all the gold in
he same gravel and sand. Chemists
re now developing a way to extract
he platinum black from the black
and in which it hides. These dredge
eople are following those investiga-
ons and expect to build their dredge
0 that it will save the black sand as
ell as the gold and the cxidized
old, and for every dollar Of gold