f 



PRECIOUS GEMS AND METALS 153 



Deer Lodge county. Moss agate and mocha stones of fine (luality found from the 

 Dakota line west up the Yellowstone valley into the Yellowstone Park, from the 

 size of a hazelnut to pieces weighing twelve pounds and bringing prices ranging 

 from .*<1 to .$200. Cut, the stones are used in brooches, stickpins, belt buckles, 

 watch fobs, etc. Black tourmaline in Jefferson county. Yellow and smoky 

 topaz in Park and ^ladisnii counties. Khodonite in Silver Bow county. Jasper in 

 Dawson county. Azurmalachite in Silver Bow and Broadwater counties. Garnets 

 are found in many districts. 



GOLD 



Uses — In coins and jewelry, in the form of fine bars as medium of interna- 

 tional exchange, in dental work, in plated wire. 



Occurrence — Has been commercially produced in Beaverhead, Broadwater, 

 Cascade, Deer Lodge, Fergus, Gallatin, Jefferson, Granite, Lewis and Clark, Lincoln, 

 Madison. Meagher, Mineral, Missoula. Park, Phillips, Powell, Ravalli, Sanders and 

 Silver Bow counties. 



PLATIMM 



Uses — In manufacture of chemical apparatus, in electrical industry, in jewelry 

 and dental work. Almost indispensable in manufacture of certain acids and chem- 

 icals and in apparatus for measuring high temperatures. Compounds used in 

 photography. Two-thirds of the platinum used in this country goes into jewelry. 



Occurrence — Reported assay from mine in Frog Pond district, Granite county, 

 showed $.34 in platinum among other values, and assay from another mine in 

 same district showed .$42 in platinum, among other values ; also found, among 

 other values, in ores from the Fleming mine, near Alhambra, Jefferson county ; 

 also reported to occur in the sands of Upper Boulder Creek, near Contact, Park 

 county ; also reported to occur in the sands of Harris Gulch, near Alder, in 

 Madison count.v. 



SILVT^R 



Uses — In coins and jewelry, in the form of fine bars as medium of interna- 

 tional exchange, in plated ware and chemicals, and in form of silver nitrate for 

 photographic films. 



Occurrence — Has been commercially produced in Beaverhead, Broadwater, 

 Cascade, Deer Lodge, Fergus, Gallatin, Jefferson. Granite, Lewis and Clark, Lin- 

 coln, Madison, Meagher, Mineral. Missoula, Park, Phillips, Powell, Ravalli, 

 Sanders and Silver Bow counties. It is largely due to the big production of 

 silver in Silver Bow county that I^Iontana in recent years has ranked first among 

 the states as a silver producer. 



MINERALS—METALLIC 



ALUMINUM 



LIses — In household utensils, instruments, parts of internal combustion en- 

 gines and many other articles in which lightness or resistance to oxidation, or 

 both, are essential. Bauxite, the most important ore of aluminum also used 

 for makin.g artificial abrasives by fusin.g it in the electric furnace, for producing 

 aluminum salts, and for making refractory brick for furnace lining. 



Occurrence — Reported on Sweeney Creek, west of Florence, Ravalli county. 



ANTIMONY 



Uses — Principally for making alloys with other metals, oxides in enamels 

 and pigments, sulphides in pigments, vulcanizing rubber and .safety matches. In 

 war u.sed for hardening bullets, in shell primers and in powder designed to produce 

 dense smoke or explosion. 



