The Wrangell sentinel., 1930-07-03
VAST DEPOSITS OF
 MULI BDENUM LIE
 NEAR MkANGELl
Many New Uses Found for This Metal
 Which Have Caused the Marke. Price to Advance to $11 Pounu

J. C. Calvin left for Seattle on the Princess Alice Tuesday evening after spending the past two weeks on the Lake Virginia mining prop critics.
 Last spring MT. Calvin sent in some ore to Seattle laboratory for assay and analysis hoping to get a l good return ot gold values. The re- port showed instead low gold value but molybdenum value of $62o ton. The ore samples were frs n surface outcroppings and there is every prospect that the Ground Hog Basin again has something big ill sight but in a different way than mas heretofore been anticipated.
 Since the discovery of a new proc ess whereby molybdenum is used as an alloy for aluminium the value of mOlybdenum has risen steadily, and the market price is now $11 per pound.
 The greatest use of molybdenum, said Mir. Calvin, is for toughening steel and today it is taking a fore most position in the worlds indus try and is in great demand. The in dications are that the future of this metal will become as important as was the discovery of nickel steel. Chemists and steel workers agree that percentage of molybdenum in steel gives a toughness and resist ance superior to any other alloy. Twenty years ago it was practically unused.
 Molybdenum steel is being made of such a temper that tools designed for high speed will not lose their cutting edge when red hot, and also they retain their polish and do not tarnish under atmospheric influ- ences. Molybdenum steel will cut keenly and deeply into glass and is so hard and tough that it resists be- ing scratched, Molybdenum more than doubles the tensile strength of steel and in high speed tool maaing the efficiency is double that of tungsten and vanadium. The only present problem is the discovery of mines of sufficient importance to supply the ever increasing demand.
 Molybdenum is in demand for use in the manufacture of wire, cast ings, car steel, gun barrels, armor plate, automobile parts, pigment for porcelain, crank and shaft forg- ings, airplane engines and bodies, preservation of high explosives, nor dant for dyeing silks and woolens, winding electric resistant furnaces, electric contact making and break ing device, high speed machine tools, shrapnel resisting helmets, dyeing leather and rubber, substitute for platinum, armor piercing shells, in- candescent lamps, submarine hull plates, electric furnaces, bank door vaults, spark plugs, x-ray tubes, dentistry, permanent magnets, as we'll as scores of other uses.
 Immense bodies of molybdenite lie in Ground Hog Basin and if further assays prove that the values are uni formly high, MT. Calvin stated that development of that property may be expected very shortly as the equipment necessary for operation is already on the ground at the Lake Virginia Mining Company's prop critics.
 The holdings of the company be- side the 30 lode mining claims in Ground Hog Basin and the LaSe group of claims, include five mill sites on the beach at the south of Mill Creek and the water power project at Virginia Lake and Mill Creek
 q consider this an excellent pros pect," said MT. Calvin, well worthy of the expenditure of time and mon- ey in it's development. It has complete water power D 4nt LOW in stalled and delivering h.p. with in 1000 feet of the m bdenum ore body, complete mill h a capac- ity of about 30 tons, tram and all equipment necessary for miniag, with the mill and the tram on the property but not installed. It can readily be seen that this property could be put to production with a very small expense and in a very .hor+ time"