THE OCCUKKENCE AND UTILIZATION OF CER- 

 TAIN MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE 

 SOUTHERN STATES. 



(Continued from June Number) 

 By Joseph Hyde Pkatt. 



PLATINUM. 



A very systematic search has been made throughout a num- 

 ber of the Southern States for platinum and grains of plati- 

 numi have been reported to have been found in the sands from 

 placer gold washings in Rutherford and Burke counties, North 

 Carolina ^. Mr. W. E. Hidden made a very thorough search 

 for platinum' at these reported localities but failed to dis- 

 cover any, and the present writer has examined very carefully 

 many of the reported localities without having discovered any 

 native platinum. This metal has also been reported from a 

 number of localities in Georgia but they are no more authentic 

 than those of North Carolina. Mr. Hidden said in regard to 

 his exploration for platinum in the South: "I will state that 

 at the many places where I operated I did not succeed in find- 

 ing any traces of its existence.'' The southern states of Vir- 

 ginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky have always 

 attracted considerable interest from those who have been search- 

 ing for platinum inasmuch as in these states are found large 

 deposits of peridotite and serpentine, associated with which is 

 more or less chromite. In many parts of the world where 

 platinum has been found in alluvial deposits, it has been 

 associated with chromite and serpentine. It has also been 

 found directly associated with chromite, and as chromite ori- 

 ginated in the serpentine, or rather in the primary rock, peri- 

 dotite, it would seem to indicate that the original source of 

 the platinum was also the peridotite or an allied igneous rock. 

 Although no platinum has yet been found associated with these 

 rocks in the South, it is not unreasonable to expect that some 

 day it will be found ^. 



iIT. S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 74, 1891, p. 14. 



2 Pratt and Lewis : N. C. Geol. Survey, vol. 1, 1905, p. 373. 



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