PLATINUM.
DOMESTIC PBODTJCTION.
CRUDE PLATINUM.
The
high price of platinum encouraged prospecting in the United States
during 1912, but did not greatly increase the production of crude
metal, which amounted to 721 ounces as compared to 628 ounces in 1911.
With, the exception of a small yield from the New Rambler copper mines
of the Douglas (Holmes) district, in Albany County, Wyo., the entire
domestic production came from California and Oregon. The greater part
of the California platinum was obtained as a by-product in gold
dredging in Butte, Yuba, Sacramento, and Calaveras counties. The other
placer operations of various kinds, especially in the northwest corner
of the State, yielded the usual small quantity of platinum as a
by-product. In Oregon the quantity recovered declined to 39 ounces.
Nevertheless, the high prices stimulated the installation of modern
machinery on the Oregon coast, and there is a prospect of a
considerably increased production in 1913. A concentration table was
installed near the mouth of Coquille River and another near Port Orford.
In
1912 a centrifugal machine was being operated on a small rich strip of
beach near Coos Head, Oreg. The machine is an inverted cone lined with
carpet and made to revolve rapidly so as to throw the gold and platinum
outward and upward. On the ocean beach at Whiskey Run, Coos County, a
large dredge has been mounted on four iron rollers, 8 feet in diameter
and 4 feet thick, so that it can be quickly shifted from low tide to
high-water mark, and even into the gulch back from the ocean, where
dredging can be carried on during storms. It is planned to concentrate
the sand partly on the dredge and to finish it up on shaking tables, of
which two are now installed. At Bullard's mine, near Whiskey Run, a new
amalgamator is being installed to collect both platinum and gold.
In
Curry County, Oreg., two companies are developing the old beaches on
upper Sixes River, using a patent concentrating device. One mile south
of Cape Blanco two beach mines are in operation. The sand is collected
by power scrapers holding about 1 cubic yard each, and after
preliminary concentration the sands will be cleaned up on tables.
At Gold Beach, Curry County, Oreg., on the south side of the mouth of Rogue River, an ingenious concentrating device has been
