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Show SEARCHING FOR PURE PLATINUM Demand for Hie Metal Increasing. Experts to Examine the Resources of United . States. Owners of Placer Deposits Asked to Contribute Material for Examination. Ex-amination. f Special to Tho Tribune. WASHINGTON, D. C. March 26. Owing to the Increased demand for platinum, pla-tinum, the United States geolozical survey Is about to make an examination examina-tion of the platinum resources of the United States. It Is proposed to collect the heavy sands from ail placer mines ln the United States where evidences of platinum have been observed. The samples thus obtained will be used ln determining the best methods of extracting ex-tracting the various minerals which have economic value. It Is hoped that the separation and sale of these useful minerals, such as magnetite, chromlte, garnet, monazlte, rutlle, zircon, gold, platinum, etc. will, in many places, become be-come a permanent and profitable Industry. Request for Samples. As a preliminary step to this investigation, inves-tigation, the survey Invites the owners own-ers of placer deposits to contribute for examination samsles of material likely like-ly to contain platinum. -These samples, which should be sent by mall, must weigh not more than four pounds each. It Is suggested that the gravel bo concentrated con-centrated before It Is mailed. Careful note should be made on the package, or In a letter accompanying It. of the total quantity of original gravel which the concentrate represents, ln order that an accurate idea may be obtained of the value of the gravel for the purposes pur-poses under Investigation. Should Be Packed Carefully. The sand should be dry when mailed and irrcnt care should be exercised to pack It securely, preferably in canvas bags, for transmission through the malls. Each package of sand should be accompanied by exact Information as to the name and postofflce uddress of the sender, tho name of the mine or claim from which it came, and tho State, county, city, village or district In which the deposit Is located. It is desirable de-sirable that the owner of each deposit should state what efforts have previously pre-viously been made to separate platinum platin-um from his sand or from other sands ln his neighborhood. Experts to Examine Deposits. After tho survey has made an examination ex-amination of these samples, experts will be sent to nil localities where preliminary pre-liminary tests give evidence of platinum. plati-num. The expert will report on the size of the deposit and superintend the collection col-lection of representative samples for concentration. Experiments in the concentration con-centration of platinum sands will probably prob-ably be carried on In connection with the exhibits of mining machinery at the Lewis and Clark centennial at Portland, Port-land, Or., between June 1 nnd October 15 of this year. As a help to prospectors, prospect-ors, tho survey published the following facts about the qualities of platinum: What Platinum Is. Pure platinum is a silvery white metal with a speclllc gravity of 21.5. With the exception of irldosmiurn It Is the heaviest metal occurring In nature. na-ture. "It is almost as hard as ir ni and is very malleable. Platinum does not amalgamate with quicksilver, is not dissolved by potassium cyanide when cold, Is not attacked by acids except the mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric hydro-chloric acid known as aqua re.ln. It Is more dllllcult to melt than gold. Found in Gold-Bearing Sands. Native platinum has been found most frequently In gold-bearing- sands. On account of Its weight It remains In tho sluices with gold and other heavy material. It is most readily distinguished distin-guished by the following characteristics: characteris-tics: Its great weight In panning it remains behind even gold tn the pan. Its white color it is whiter than lead and Is distinguished from amalgam by Its smooth surface, whereas the surface sur-face of amalgam as seen under a good glass is rough. Large Nuggets Rare. Native platinum !s usually very Impure; Im-pure; occasionally it contains so much Iron and ho many other Impurities as to be dark ln color and not easily distinguished dis-tinguished from chromitt!, with which It Is commonly as&orlatcd. It frequently frequent-ly contains Irldosmiurn, which occurs ns Hat, angular scales, while platinum grains are usually rounded like gold dust. Platinum grains arc usually smaller than gold grains. Large nuggets nug-gets are very rare. Found in Idaho. Platinum seems to be more generally gener-ally distributed through California than through and other State. It has been found in Butte. Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Placer, 'Plumas. San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity und Yuba counties. Curry, Coos, Lincoln, and Josephine counties in Oregon havo produced platinum. It has been discovered dis-covered In Nez Porces county, Idaho. A nugget of platinum was found in Rutherford Ruth-erford county, North Carolina. In 1817, and one in Clinton county, Nev York, in 1SS0. Richest Mine in Wyoming. Platinum has been reported from Custer county, Montana, from Lumpkin Lump-kin county. Georgia, and from the beach north of Lltuyn bay, Alaska. It has been detected by assay ln sands from Lancaster ami Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania. The richest producer of platinum In the Uidted States Is the Rambler mine of Albany county, Wyoming. |