BERYLLIUM Clippings from Medford Mail-Tribune May 25, 1943 BERYttfflM FINO¥ rea est ery um Deposit 41~ Discovered Near Gold Hill ~ QUESTIONED BY Sacramento, April 23-(U.P.)- Discovery of the world greatest known deposit of vital beryllium ore by an 82-yea old prospector in southern Oregon, was rev~aled for the fir !MINING MEN HERE time today by .Millspaugh, director of the strateg· a survey · ounty Supervisors Association of Cal Grants ass Prospector's The huge deposit was unco P ered in the mc,untains 20 mil Announcement Of Vast north of Gold Hill, OreP' on. b arles- LUlT,"' grlzzie prospe Supply. Meets Skepticism. tor of Grants Pass, Millspaug said. Upon receiving first repor The report Friday of the dis­ of the discovery, Millspaug covery of what was termed the said, he went to view the d posit himself. "I was astoun world's largest known deposit ed," he said. "It looked like of vital beryllium ore was met huge mountain of shimmerin . by considerable s k e p t i c i s m emeralds. It was the greate among mining men in Medford thing I ever saw." and Grants Pa~s, and a United Prospector Lull, who is sol Press dispatch quoting a spokes­ claim holder of the propert man for the Oregon State De­ had been working a small an partment of Geology and Min- unproductive pocket of the or eral Industries that beryllium unablfi_,., firm the discov• nearby for some months, Mill had never yet been found by 1·" ·Th tel1 also quot~d paugh said, and hadn't reco them in samples taken from pokesman for t'he department nized the huge deposit for wha southern Oregon ore deposits did t ''so far they had no knowl- it was because it was staine little to foster the hope that such ge of .the-deposit-and that of off-color by foreign minerals a huge supply actually had been many samples taken from south• It is cousidered by the go uncovered. ern Oregon ore deposits, they ernment to be one of the The giant deposit,· ·according- had not yet found beryllium," •ritiaal minerals ~ to P. M. Millspaugh, director of Recall Former Report the strategic minerals survey of It was recalled here that late the County Supervisors Asocia- in 1941 and early in 1942 r e­ tion of California, was disco_v- ·1· ports were circulated that ber11- ered 20 miles north of Gold Hill lium had been discovered in the by Charles Lull, 82, a "grizzled Butte Falls vicinity. Medford prospector of Grants Pass." Tl1e business men became interested United Press carried Mills• and on their behalf the First Na­ uaugh's announcement, made ~ tional bank of Portland request- Sacramento. ed state geologists to analy'Ze State Man in Dark the ore. In February of 1942 Ray Treasher, field repre Treasher and a state geologist ative for the State Departrnent from Portland analyzed samples of Geology and Mineral Indus- and failed to find any beryllium. tries, with headquarters 4n Eugene Thorndike, manager of C,rants Pass, said he didn't knn\'t the Medford branch of the First a.nything about the deposit -al'id National bank of .Portland, said that from the meagre descriptiaR several reports of beryllium de• received he was unable to specif. · posit discoveries had been heard ically locate the deposit. He iden- the past two or three years but tified Lull as having operated that they had never proven out a mineral assaying laboratory in Harry Skyrman, Medford at­ Grants Pass for many ,years, in torney with mining interests, addition to doing some prospect- said that to his knowledge no ing. Treasher said no samples beryllium had ever been discov from the deposit had yet been ered in southern Oregon, despite taken to the Grants Pass office. the many rumors and reports of In conjunction with the an- its existence. ~ nouncement from Sacramento Beryllium is considered by the I of the discovery of the deposit, government to be one of the the United Press later carried a most critical war minerals. It ii:: statement from the Oregon State the fourth lightest metal known Department of Geology and and when alloyed with alumin· -ladustri41ll,. ~d, . RAY C. TREASHER DR. PAUL H. M.-P. BRINTON* analyzes So-Called Beryllium Ores of Oregon URING the past five or six years in­ methods for geological rock analysis, as D numerable samples of a green, or given in Hillebrand and Lundell's "Ap­ blueish-green, volcanic tuff, much of it A careful investigation by ana­ plied Inorganic Analysis." Aluminum was altered to a more or less clay-like con­ lytical method of the most ap­ determined directly in a separate portion, sistency, have come to the writer's labora­ proved type has failed to show by precipitation as hydrated chloride in tory from Jackson County, Oregon. This significant amounts of beryllium ethereal solution, being finally weighed as material is said to carry from 6 per cent in the so-called beryllium ores of the oxyquinolate. All weighed precipitates to 32 per cent of beryllium oxide, but in Jackson County, Oregon. The were tested spectrographically for the spite of the fact that a mountain of the investigation is an authoritative presence of beryllium, to make certain that ore was said to exist, and in spite of the answer to the controversy as to any beryllium present was not being demand for a single large source of beryl­ the beryllium deposits in that area. counted as another element. lium ore, no production has ever occurred. The analysis showed the following per­ Since such extravagant claims are common centages: in connection with beryllium, an element A matter also worthy of note is the which seems to exercise a peculiarly in­ opm10n locally held that the spectro­ Silica ( SiO,) ..................... 61.84 vigorating effect on the human imagina­ graphic test for beryllium is not effective. Titanium oxide (TiO,) .... .. 0.81 tion, no special attention was paid to the This was used to explain the fact that all Aluminum oxide ( Al,O, ) .. 13.52 claims. samples of the Jackson County tuff sub­ Ferric oxide (Fe,O,) ......... 3.44 Very recently, however, a release to mitted to experienced spectrographers Ferrous oxide (FeO) ....... 1.09 the press and radio stated that the dis­ had failed to show any beryllium content. Manganese oxide (MnO) .. 0.11 covery of a large deposit of rich beryl­ It was learned in Grants Pass that the Calcium oxide ( CaO,) ...... .. 3.71 lium ore in Oregon would supply all of basis of this disbelief in the reliability of Magnesium oxide (MgO) .. .. 1.23 the country's requirement of beryllium the spectrographic method was based upon Strontium oxide (SrO) ... 0.12 for the next hundred years. Unfortu­ an observation by Bunsen in the early Potassium oxide (K,O) ---· 2.23 nately, this release seemed to come from days of the visual spectroscope. He Sodium oxide (Na,O) ...... 1.82 a semi-official source in another state, so stated that the line of wave-length 4573, Water below 110°C. (H,O-) 3.65 the report gained wide credence, and there earlier noted by Kirchoff and Thalen as Water above 110°C. (H,O+) 6.32 was evidence that a directly deterrent ef­ spark line, did not show if the beryllium Phosphorus pentoxide ( P,O,) 0.14 fect was exercised on some who had fair chloride was excited by the arc instead Chlorine (Cl) .................. .. 0.03 Sulphur (S) ..................... prospects of developing beryl in a reason­ of by the spark. It is common knowledge 0.01 Vanadium trioxide (V,O,) able, small way-a method of production that a number of lines of each element 0.002 which is being earnestly encouraged by show in the spark spectrum and not in those in our government whose province it the arc spectrum, and vice versa. So this 100.07 is to increase our domestic supply of much­ reference was a simple statement that the Clearly, there is no room for from 6 to needed beryllium ore. line 4573 was a spark line and not an arc 32 per cent of beryllium oxide in this ore. line. Such a statement could be inter­ After this last release it seemed advis­ The question of phenacite, the rich or­ able, as an unattached scientist deeply in­ preted as a criticism of the spectrographic detection of beryllium, in which we rely thosilicate of beryllium, in the deposit had terested in beryllium, to visit the Oregon been raised by a statement, earlier made, field, and to learn whether the lately on lines in the ultra-violet such as 2348.61 and the doublet 3130.42-3131.07, only that some very pure, transparent crystal, heralded discovery was the same as the carried a "high percentage of beryllium." source of the tuff which had been coming by those who do not differentiate be­ tween the early days of the visual spectro­ Such a crystal, submitted earlier to me by in since the year 1938. The owners grant­ an authorized representative of the owners, ed the privilege of visiting the property scope and the technique of the modern spectrograph, with photographic reproduc­ was analyzed for silica by treatment of the and taking samples for analysis, and powdered sample with sulphuric and hydro• assured me that the new discovery was tion of the lines in the ultra-violet region. fluoric acids, volatilizing the silica as sili­ the same property. The only "new" part However difficult may be the exact deter­ con tetrafluoride, igniting and weighing seems to be that this semi-official visitor mination of the percentage of beryllium in any residue, which wquld contain any from a neighboring state, accompanied by an ore, it is a happy fact that beryllium beryllium oxide.