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PLATINUM AND ALLIED METALS.
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451
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FOREIGN PRODUCTION.
RUSSIA.
The following description of the Russian platinum industry was furnished to the Mining Journal, London, by E. de Hautpick:1
The
decision of the Imperial Government to impose a 30 per cent tax on
imported platinum, which formed the subject of a recent contribution to
the Mining Journal, Is likely to have an important Influence on the
world's platinum market. The marked rise which has been witnessed In
price since 1898 is due to the fact that whilst consumption of the
metal has increased, fresh discoveries of ore have not kept pace.
Consequently producers are compelled either to rewash their old
tailings or undertake the exploitation of sands of lower or less
remunerative content. There is a steady decline evident in the average
yield from the Ural placers. The figure is now 0.05 ounce troy of crude
platinum per ton of gravel. The corresponding contents for earlier
periods were considerably higher—viz: 1894-1907, 0.09 ounce; 1883-1894,
0.1 ounce; 1850-18S3, 0.33 ounce; 1838-1850, 0.4 ounce; 1829-1838, 0.5
ounce. Moreover, the cost of labor, timber, fuel, and taxes have all
increased. The result is that the cost of production has largely
appreciated. During the past three years the price has remained around
£7 10s. ($36.50) per troy ounce for crude; previously there were rapid
monthly fluctuations, varying as much as from 85s. ($20.68) to 175s.
($42.58), giving rise to great uncertainty in working.
With
the steady prices of the last three years we can judge pretty well what
is the normal production of the field. The output in 1913 amounted to
157,508 troy ounces, as against 177.375 ounces in 1912 and 185,381
ounces in 1911, thus showing a decline from 15.000 to 20,000 ounces per
year. Looking at the industry over a longer period, the decade 1904 to
1913 gave a total production of 1,705,808 ounces, against 1,788,257 in
1894-1904, a diminution of 82,386 ounces, as compared with a decade
previous. These figures show the substantial exhaustion of the placers.
The
two principal centers of platinum production are Blagodat, on the
Asiatic slope, and Nizhni-Tagilsk, on the European slope of the Ural
Mountains. The Blagodat placers are in reality gold-platinum deposits.
The Nizhni-Tagilsk placers contain platinum, and their production is
twice as great' as that of the Blagodat placers, and the quality of the
ore [gravel] is also better, as can be seen by the following chemical
analysis:
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The
richest district is South verkhotoor, which yielded during 1913,
10:2,408 ounces troy, 15,000 ounces less than in 1912. The North
Verkhotoor district during 1913 produced 11.320 ounces of
platinum—1.641 ounces less than in 1912. The Cherdensk district output
in- 1913 gave 6.155 ounces, or 50 ounces less. The Perm district
production was 36,835 ounces, and the South Ekaterinburg 800 ounces.
A
marked development in recent times has been the increase of dredging on
the placers. * * * In 1913 about 22,000 ounces were won by dredges, and
137,000 ounces by hand labor. Since 1904 the dredge proportion has gone
up from 4i to 14 per cent. The extension of their use must depend to
some extent on their being found suitable to work placers hitherto
inaccessible to them. * * * The chief companies owning dredges at
present are the Fedorovsky, the riatina. the Neviansk, the Draga, and
the Nizhni-Tagilsk
' Min. .Tour. (London), Mar. 14, 1914,
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