MINERALS NOT COMMEBOIALLY IMPORTANT 



BY HERBERT P. WHITLOCK 



In addition to the productive mineral deposits of commercial 

 value, there are, in New York, many mineral occurrences which 

 would be of economic value were it not for the fact that their 

 small extent and costly mining render the working of them profit- 

 less as a commercial enterprise. In many cases these deposits 

 have been worked in the past and have ceased producing because 

 of the thinning of the ore body or on account of growing compe- 

 tition with the richer and more productive mines in other sec- 

 tions of the United States. Gold, silver and platinum, while un- 

 doubtedly occurring to a small extent both free and combined 

 (in the case of gold and silver) with pyrite or galena, have never 

 been found in New York in sufficient quantity to pay for the 

 cost of extraction. 



The experience of 50 years tends to show that capital invested 

 in New York gold and silver mining ventures has invariably 

 resulted in a loss. Gold and platinum undoubtedly exist in ex- 

 tremely minute proportions in the garnetiferous and magnetic 

 sands of the Adirondack region, and in the year 1898 alone 2800 

 gold and silver claims were filed in the office of the secretary of 

 state, covering portions of Saratoga, Fulton, Warren, Hamilton, 

 Herkimer, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, St Lawrence, Jefferson and 

 Lewis counties. The writer is however unaAvare that any of the 

 holders of these '' claims '^ have succeeded in extracting gold in 

 paying quantities. 



The minerals unimportant commercially may be roughly classi- 

 fied in two groups: metallic minerals and nonmetallic minerals. 



Metallic minerals 



1 Iron pyrites. The bisulfid of iron commonly known as iron 

 pyrites furnishes a cheap source of sulfur in the manufacture of 

 sulfuric acid. Within the last few years its use in this Industry 



