18 COLORADO FERBERITE AND THE WOLFRAMITE SERIES. 



SPECTROSCOPIC EXAMINATION OF THE FERBERITE. 



(Scandium, 1 columbium, tantalum, and other rare elements are 

 found in some wolframites, and a specimen of ferberite from the Con- 

 ger mine was sent with a specimen of scheelite to Prof. G. Eberhard, 

 Potsdam, Germany, who kindly made a spectroscopic analysis of them. 

 In a letter dated August 20, 1912, to Adolph Knopf, of the United 

 States Geological Survey, Prof. Eberhard says: 

 The examination of the two minerals from Mr. Hess gave the following results: 

 The lines of Ba, Gl, Pb, Ga, K, Li, Na, Ni, Ag, Sn, Bi, Zn, and Zr are absent in both 

 minerals. The lines of the following elements are present in ferberite: 

 Al, visible. Mo, weak?. 



Ca, weak. Sc, weak. 



Cr, weak or absent. Si, strong. 



Fe, strong. Sr, weak. 



Cb, weak. Ti, weak. 



Cu, weak. V, weak. 



Mg, visible. W, strong. 



Mn, weak. . Y, absent. 



I have not sought for the elements not here listed. Lines marked "weak " indicate 

 that the content of the element is small or very small. Lines marked " visible ' ' indi- 

 cate that the content of the element is fairly large. Lines marked "strong " indicate 

 that the content of the element is large. The element whose presence I could not 

 substantiate with absolute certainty I have marked with a question. The content 

 of scandium is certainly smaller than 0.005 per cent and is therefore chemically not 

 detectable. 



Since this determination was made an article by H. S. Lukens 2 



Ihas appeared, in which he describes the extraction of scandium 



[from residues of Colorado tungsten ores that had been treated by the 



jGeneral Electric Co. at Schenectady, N. Y. Lukens found 0.05 per 



cent of scandium oxide in the residues. In reply to my inquiries 



the Primos Chemical Co., which had furnished the ores, wrote, 



under date of April 18, 1914: 



Regarding the scandium found in some of our ores, we have not yet located the 

 point from which the ores come, but as a rule our residues contain no scandium. A 

 great many tests are made right along. As we are getting ores from a great many 

 points on our property, it is very difficult to tell from which particular openings they 

 came. Most Boulder County ores contain no scandium. Have given samples right 

 along to various universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, and though 

 exhaustive tests have been made, not one of them has found any scandium. 



Another letter, dated April 27, 1914, says: 



As far as our records show, we shipped, with the probable exception of one small 

 lot from Arizona, only Boulder County ores to the General Electric Co. 



I No tungstic ocher, muscovite, stibnite, bismuth minerals, fluorite, 

 f tourmaline, axinite, cassiterite, or topaz minerals which in some 

 I places occur with wolframite deposits, particularly if closely connected 

 I with pegmatites are known to have been found in the Boulder field. 



i Winter Herbert, Ueber Vorkommen und Reindarstellung des Scandiums: Inaugural-Dissertation, 

 Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat zu Berlin, pp. 22-23 et al., 1911. See also Mennicke, Hans, Die Metallurgie 

 des Wolframs, pp. Ill et seq., 1911. 



Scandium m American wolframite: Am. Chem. Soc. Jour., vol. 35, pp. 1470-1472, 1913. 



