PLATINUM

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 16 June 1928, Page 11

PLATINUM

npiTE discovery of a-platinum-bearing area of about forty square miles in Sierra Leone raises interesting questions about the present supplies, the price, and the uses of platinum, and encourages the hope or considerable economic advantage for the colony itself (says the “Observer”). lboressor S. J. Trascott, of the Royal School of Mines, iii an interview in which questions on these subjects were put to him, said: “The major portion of the present supplies fo platinum comes irom the Or al Mountains in Russia Before the was as much as two hundred and fifty thousand ounces a year was obtained from this source—probably ninety percent. of the world’s production. Since 1914 nothing like this figure has been readied. The production is now something like a hundred thousand ounces. It lias been lower, but it is gradually rising, and the Soviet Government looks to it tor some . portion of its re.enue.

“When the supplies from .Russia fell off they had to be looked for elsewhere, and Colombia, in South America, where about fi.e thousand ounces a year was being obtained, become a producer on a more considerable scale, and the output has risen to some sixty thousand ounces a >ear. Other sources of supply have been found in Canada, Australasia, Borneo, and latterly in the Transvaal, where the metal is got from the r ck. The Transv nal hoped to produe about -orty thousand ounces last year, but the figure has fallen far. short of this amount. The probability, however, is that there will be an increasing amount from South Africa.’’ “And what are the prospects of the discovery in Sierra Leone?”

“it is very hard to say. The man who is best qualified to speak is Major .) tinner, the director of the Geological Survey, by whom it was first found. He says the deposits, which are alluvial. are likely to be of considerable importance. The find of a nugget of 4} dwts., which he reports is an indication that platinum is there all right, and the extent of the platinum bearing area, forty square miles, is quite considerable.’.’ There appear always to have been violent fluctuations in the price of platinum. Thirty years ago it. was two

PRICES AND SUPPLIES

guineas an ounce, twenty years ago nve guineas.. In recent years it has been as high as £23; now it is down to £l4. Should Sierra Leone become a.considerable producer, the price may conceivably fall further. “It must he remembered, however,” Professor Trusoott said, -‘that the quoted price is for refined platinum. The metal found in the deposits' is crude, and contains various platinoids, which have to be separated from it. The bulk cf the world s platinum is refined in England by Messrs Johnson, Matthey, and Co., and by Messrs Daniel Griffith, both firms being assayers to the Bank or England. ' . “If lower prices are reached for the metal it may he expected that a, good deal more will be used in industry, for there are two uses of platinum—essential uses and luxury uses. .Of the essential uses I suppose the greatest is in the manufacture of sulphuric acid and nitric acid. It is also used largely for chemical apparatus as well as in the- -electrical industry, for electrical contacts, in telegraph and telephone work, and in magnetos for motor-cars. In dentistry it also, plays a prominent part. The luxury use is that for jewellery, which absorbs something like half the world’s production, the high pri-e being a factor in its popularity. A. lower , price than the present would undoubtedly increase its uses in industry. “When I was a student- platinum I was only thirty shillings an ounce, and 1 every one bought his own crucible Now* a student has either to borrow a crucible or use one made of some other metal. No doubt it would he more widely used in the laboratories again if the price was lower. “A very interesting point' about the present discovery is that it was made, not bv any private individual, but by the Geological survey., and that it fol--1 ws similarly important economic discoveries in the neighbouring territory of the Gold Coast, where the , Geological Survey, under the direction of i Sir Albert Kitson, discovered diamonds, bauxite (the ore of aluminium), and manganese deposits. One hopes that the platinum discovery will achieve for the Government of Sierra Leone a success similar to that- now being reaped by the Government of the Gold Coast fiVm their important discoveries.”