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Show COAST UNDER PROBE Mines Bureau Makes Careful Care-ful Study of Oregon's Big Deposits. Results Tend to Discourage Development on Any Extensive Scale. As a result of th' unusual demand for pint!nu:n lti r.ie run n u t;v :W ro of maf;;Mais n.:f-J.-' in war, and of the flocreane in Hni-iAy through Mrn;ilk;r Import.-! r;:iui ting from tin; rurUiIlr-.l production in UuHMla, IIk, r.'nir.td t-'tat.H wjJi confront oA with a H'-riouH hhortagfj of this metal, and the in;irkt;t pri':o rost; to fuur or five titnea tli.i prlco in 10H, aaia tho Mining Con-KitiM.i Con-KitiM.i Jrjurnal. on ao'ouiit of this unuMual aituatton and tho n""d "f a-4'-oftainii. tho possible nrrv:un ( prod u t n In tills country, Iho hur.;ati of mln.'.i flocldcd to Investigate, Investi-gate, norno of V.ia rrioro proiniMlntc localities locali-ties on tho I'ai ific coast where gold and platinum are Known 10 ie associated with rtu.-h minerals as magnetite, chromUo mid llriiHMltf. with various sillroous niln-iralrt. niln-iralrt. tiio nw-''i constituting wnat ;i rn nnrninoiiiy known S "nlJi'k s;inds. 'I h: ohjo'-i. was to flu tormina whether any of th-sf (h-polts are lano enough find contain mil i "u-itjnt goM and platinum to he profit a.hly exploited, and also to ln tormina wh.;th"r I ho h:i.so minerals prtiMnit, esp.;.-lally tiio iron minerals, might he rominercJa lly utilized as a itoiirco of Iron. Tho Investigation was Intrusted to R. Tl. Uornor, metal mining engineer of the tiuir.au of rnln-'f, who proceeded to Marsh- i flnld Conn count v. Orogon, and spont a month in the field of Coos, Curry and Jostipniiie counties, Oregon, and Del Norte county, California. Expectations Fail. Tho results of the Investigation may ho summarized by tho statement that in fconnral t ho black -wand deposits are disappointing in both value and quantity; quan-tity; they rarely contain enough gold ami platinum or occur in adequaio quantity quan-tity to be exploited fit a profit. There are, it is true, a few favored plaies w here small n reas of I bo black ici nd show so mo prevlus metal content, and these may become tho site of small operations. The deposits In many places eon I aln appreciable- a mounts of mag-mdlte. mag-mdlte. chromile and ilmenlte, but these minerals nro generally too scattered and too poor to const It uto an important source of Iron ore;, especially in competition competi-tion with the known deposits of , mag-n- tito on the Pacific coast. Tho chief difficulties In tho profitable exploitation of these deposits are, first, lack of uniformity in occurrence and metallic? content, and. second, the high cost of mining and treating the materia ma-teria Is. The first record of beach mining was in ISal at. Gold Bluff, Humboldt county, t'a II fornia. where gold was discovered on the sea beach associated with black mid wray sands. This discovery was soon followed by ot hers north along the California Cali-fornia and Oregon coasts. Worked Years Ago. The period of greatest activity appears to have been from tho beginning- to the middle '70's, when the richest and most oeofsyible of the old beaches were being worked. From that time, until the present, pres-ent, many futile attempts have been made to-work both the present and the old beaches for tho gold and platinum that they are supposed to contain. A few individuals. It is true, make a precarious living by working places along the coast where at cert a in times of the year the t ide and storms effect a rough concen-tration concen-tration of the sands: but wherever an attempt at-tempt has been made to work the sands on a largo scale failure has Invariably been the result. ft luck -sand mining in the past has offered a fruitful field for unscrupulous promoters and has been especially alluring al-luring to men having little knowledere of mining or mining methods. These swindlers swin-dlers usually claim to have some wonderful won-derful machine or process for ex tract in g gold and pla 1 1 mini from the sands. Many, of these agents made the most ex t ravngant claims for the processes or machines. Some of these process men were so bold as to claim that they could recover gold and platinum where it could not bo detected by a ny known scientific mot hod. As a resui t. the Pacific coast is strewn with the wrecks of many kinds of experimental machines and of plants that hear evidence to the credulity and childlike simplicity of those who had been Induced to invest their money in schemes for treating the sands. Technical paper 106, "Notes on the rtack Sand Deposits of Southern Oregon and Northern California." has just been issued by the bureau of mines. Copies of this report may be obtained free of charce by addrossine: the director of the bureau of mines. Washington, D. C. |