The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-11-03
OIL SHALES CONTAIN
GOLD, PLATINUM AND SILVER
A. NJ. Beam. Pioneer Mining Engineer,
Invents Process for EductiOn Of
Oils From Shales; Tests Have Been
Kept Secret.
(By Robert G. DID

Gold, silver and platinum, valued
at billions of dollars, exist in the oil
shales of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah
and many other states and may be
recovered at relatively low cost, ac-
cording to A. M. Beam, pioneer min
| ing engineer, who has invented a pro-
cess for the eduction of oil from
shales, the rights to which are held
by the Colorado Shale and Metals
company for this state and by a SIM
liar corporation organized by the
same interests for Wyoming.
The search for a commodity which
will supplement the produc tion of
petroleum and probably ultimately
supplant it has led to the discovery
that practically every shale deposit
in the United States carries gold,
silver and platinum values which al
most rival the oil field in worth. This
discovery, made by Mr.. Beam while
prosecuting his work on shale re-
tort which can be built cheaply and
operated economically, has been sub
jected to some Of the severest tests,
each Of which has demonstrated its
correctness. Although many scien-
lists and numerous mining and oil
operators have been told of the re-
suits of Mr.. Beams test, it has been
kept secret from the public, as the
discoverer has been unwilling to
make a formal announcement until
one simple item in the machinery of
his plant has been brought to state
of perfection. 1t is likely that with
in few weeks, when this work has
been accomplished, Mr. Beam will
demonstrate his discovery in the
presence of experts, representative of
both the mineral and oil and precious
metal industries, who will form the
jury to pass on the justice of his
claim.
During the course of his expert
ments, some of them on commercial
scale, with oil shales taken from va
rious deposits in Colorado, Wyoming,
Utah, Arkansas and other states, Mr..
Beam, while working on the spent"
shale, i. e., the rock after it had
passed through the retort and had
been thoroughly decarbonized, ex-
tracted gold in quantities running
from SO to as high as S33 per ton of
raw shale; three ounces of silver to
the ton; and high platinum values,
one reaching the almost unbelievable
worth of S88 per ton. Disregarding
the value of the oil content and its
allied product, ammonium sulphate
which is recovered in the process. of
educ tion, the metal carried in an av-
erage ton of raw shale has a value. if
Mr.. Beams conclusions are correct,
of from $40 to 500 per ton, or more
than five times the cost of mining,
eduction and metal recovery. Con-
sidering the billions of tons of oil
shale which have been found from
New Brunswick to British Columbia
and from the Dakotas to Alabama,
the total value of these deposits
takes on proportions which are so stu
pendous that ones mind can hardly
form low estimate of the wealth
they will produce.
Aside from the discovery of the ex-
istence of three precious metals in
the oil shales in amounts which of
themselves are a source of almost in
conceivable wealth if quantitative
tests uphold Mr.. Beams conclusions,
the retort he has invented, and which
is, in a commercial form, set up in
the plant of the W. ]. Chamberlain
Ore Treating Works at Galapago
street and West Forty-third avenue,
is one Of the most economical both in
construction and operation ever de-
vised and is, besides, the most eff
cient of the score or more already
tested in Denver.
Mr.. Beams process requires that
the shale be reduced to a smaller
mesh than the average system of
shale oil eduction. This is accom-
plished by passing the rock through
a series of crushers incident to the
ore treating plant. The crushed shale
is hoisted by elevators to- a hopper,
whence it descends into the retort in
quantities that permit its even dis
tribution on the floors OF the three
chambers through which it is moved
by automatic machinery until it
makes its exit as spent shale. entire
ly free from oil and other forms of
hydrocarbons. The success of the
retort is largely based upon the al
most perfect control of the heat and
the fact that the ingenious device
which moves the crushed rock turns
over every particle SO that every side
of these minute pieces Of shale is ex-
nnsed at frenuent intervals to this