methods used by the dredge companies for saving platinum and rusty gold in their black sands have been published.3
The United States Bureau of Mines4
has shown that the Beam American continuous retort process for
"unlocking" gold and platinum in shale is unworkable for that purpose
and that the Colorado shale does not carry precious metals in
sufficient quantities to be of commercial significance.
Idaho
has been through the throes of a platinum excitement, based on
assayers' reports of the occurrence of platinum metals at the Home
Builder, Caribou, and Wilson United mines, near Coeur d'Alene. The
affair was given considerable publicity, as a result of which Federal
and State agencies undertook an investigation,5 which showed
conclusively that platinum is not present in the ores at any of the
properties. The local operators are believed to have been misled by
certain so-called assayers, who formerly operated at Grants Pass, Oreg.
The
Geological Survey has been informed that a little platinum is found in
placers in the Troy district, Lincoln County, Mont., and that a
copper-nickel ore from a property at Contact, in Park County, carries
appreciable amounts of platinum.
All
the platinum produced in Oregon in 1922, a total of 53 ounces, came
from the southwestern counties, and the greater part from the beach
mines in the vicinity of Bullards, Port Orford, Sixes, and Wedderburn.
So far as reports to the Geological Survey show, no platinum was saved
by the dredges in Sumpter Valley, Baker County, and only a small
quantity was obtained from the placer mines on Illinois Kiver in
Josephine County.
The
Electrolytic mine (old Rambler), near Holmes, Albany County, Wyo.,
owned by the Electrolytic Copper Co., of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was
under development during 1922, and late in the year the company
shipped ore to eastern smelters. The president of the company states
that the mine is now in condition to ship regularly a good-grade copper
ore carrying silver, gold, platinum, and palladium. The Iron Blossom
Mining Co. owns properties near the Electrolytic mine.
BRAZIL.
In April6
announcement was made of the discovery of platinum in the State of
Parahyba do Norte, Brazil. Samples of this ore received in the United
States consist of a rather siliceous hematite in which, if platinum is
present its distribution is probably erratic, for qualitative tests of
several pieces did not indicate its presence.
CANADA.
The production of platinum metals in Ontario7
in 1922, which represents recoveries from refining part of the Sudbury
nickel-copper ores, was 176.18 ounces of platinum, 341.44 ounces of
palladium, and
2 Separating platinum from sand: Eng. and Min. Jour., vol. 113, p. 251, Feb. 11,1922.
4
Varley, Thomas, Mines Bureau investigates gold in oil shale and
explains methods used to obtain results: Salt Lake Min. Rev., vol. 24,
pp. 9-12, Nov. 30,1922.
6
A preliminary study of certain reported platinum occurrences near Coeur
d'Alene, Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology Pamphlet 6, July, 1923.
« Commerce Repts., Apr. 13,1923.
' Report of Ontario Minister ol Mines, copied in Eng. and Min. Jour .-Press, vol. 115, p. 627, Apr. 7,1923.
