Seward daily gateway., 1932-08-03
RICHEST PLATINUM
 FIND AMERICA THOUGHT
 EXIST GOOD NEWS BAY


 is a lode still existing at what is believed to be the source of plati- mum, is the plan of H. s. Graves, Juneau business man, Pete Brevik, an experienced miner, and Lars Hylen, also experienced in mining.
 The party has just arrived in Seward from Good News Bay af- ter acquiring large area of po- tential platinum ground. For the most part the holdings are situat- ed upon creeks where tests have shown commercial values to be present.
 It is estimated that approximate ly HOO ounces of platinum were extracted in 1881 from a number of creeks having their source in Red Mountain, which lies south of the entrance to Good News Bay.
 In addition to a quantity of the precious metal-an ounce or more the party brought back one mug get weighing several pennyweights, and other prospectors returning by the SS Starr exhibit coarse speci- mems of pure platinum.
 According to MT. Graves the bed rock in the various creeks ranges from five to eight feet in depth. To work the ground in the absence of heavy flow of water, miners are using the automatic gate or ''splasher,' impounded water a t higher levels of the creeks.
 The enriched creeks have their genesis in Red Mountain, 2,OO0 foot eminence, bounded on the west by Kuskokwim Bay and on the east by a range of mountains running south to Cape Newnham, southern extension of the Xiii buck mountains.
 Red Mountain, according to data available, is big uplift of basaltic rock intrusiveS which are inter spersed with flows and volcanic tufts, dunite, pyroxenite, peridotite, small sections of later or basic rocks like diorite, granite and quartz diorite, the north side of the mountain having a large rem nant of slates, ranging from in durated to argillites. Other geolo- glc evidence, by which Messrs. Graves and associates set store is the Weathered and disintegrated serpentine, one of the constituents ot platinum, and with dunite. be- lleved to be it's mattrix, or magma.
 According to a description of the region, supplied by MT. Graves and associates, the laydown of the platinum placers has been through oxldization and erosions rather than by glacial action. It is for this reason that prospecting was directed to the higher reaches above the creeks to discover if pos- slble, the source. MT. Graves says this has, in a measure, been ac- complished, and will carry the prospecting further by driving in- to what he believes will prove to be a deposit or ledge of platinum bearing ore.
 To date there has been no dis covery of platinum in lode form on the American continent, in com- mercial quantities. But it has with structures such as character lze the Good News Bay deposit, in clud1ng gabbro, which comes from the lower horizons of plutonic or basic rocks.
 Speaking of the country from a prospecting standpoint, MT. Graves says that, due to the small area, and the fact that all possible con- mercial deposits have been staked, there is little room for others and small chance of acquiring holdings.
 However, I believe this is one of the richest platinum deposits yet discovered in the world" said MT. Graves, "and next spring we intend to do considerable explora- tion work to determine every ques- tion associated with both placer operations and the possibility of a lode being buried in Red Mountain" |"
 Tn addition to the five or more creeks showing values, there may be possibilities in Salmon river, in-