Platinum also exists in small quantities in streams in the neighbourhood
of the Blue Mountains, eastern Oregon, where the Powder River Gold
Dredging Co., in Sumpter district, produces on a small scale. Other
platiniferous localities in eastern Oregon are the Granite and Canyon
districts, and Spanish Gulch in Wheeler county[10] p. 541.
_Colorado._—Platinum is known to exist in the black sands from Clear
Creek. Its presence has also been reported in the gold gravels of the
Iron Hill placer at Como, where it occurs mechanically combined with
magnetite. Another occurrence recently discovered is in a vein worked by
the Rollcall Mining Co., near Villa Grove. An assay of material from
this vein, taken at a depth of 1,500 ft., showed the following values:
gold, 3·2 oz.; platinum, 5·09 oz.; silver, 3·05 oz.; and copper, 3·5 per
cent.[9] p. 592.
_Nevada._—In 1909 the occurrence of platinum in Clark county was noticed
by the United States Geological Survey to be in association with copper,
nickel and cobalt ores from the Key West and Great Eastern Mines, near
Bunkerville. The ore bodies are contained in pegmatites and basic
intrusions, which carry pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite, the platinum
content in the ore averaging about 0·2 oz. per ton[72].
In 1914 platinum, with palladium, was discovered at the Boss Gold Mine,
situated 10 miles west of Goodsprings, in Clark county. The mine was
originally worked for copper, and later for its copper and gold
contents. The country rock consists of limestone of middle Carboniferous
age, intruded by sills of quartz monzonite porphyry, the ore bodies
occurring in a fault zone in the limestone. The copper ores comprise
mainly chrysocolla and malachite, and contain traces only of platinum.
The gold ore occurs in a fine-grained siliceous matrix, containing a
bismuth-bearing variety of _plumbo-jarosite_ (a hydrous sulphate of iron
and lead). The rare metals are present in the free state, being
apparently alloys of gold, platinum and palladium[73].
In 1919 the Boss Mine shipped $22,365 worth of platinum-bearing ore[74].
A plant of 300 tons monthly capacity has recently been erected at Los
Angeles, California, for the treatment of its complex ores, which
average 7 per cent. of copper, 4 per cent. bismuth, and 1·0 oz. of
platinum and palladium, 0·75 oz. of gold, and 3 oz. of silver per ton.
The pulp from ore pulverized to 80 mesh is agitated with sulphuric acid
(2 per cent.). The acid solution contains the copper and about 20 per
cent. of the platinum. The copper is precipitated as cement copper,
together with the platinum, by means of scrap-iron. The remainder of the
platinum, together with the gold and silver, is first leached with, and
then precipitated from, a neutral solution of calcium chloride. The
inventors of the process claim that approximately 92 per cent. of the
copper, 96 per cent. of the platinum metals, gold and silver, and over
90 per cent. of the bismuth are recovered by this process[75].
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