Bismuth Mine North of Nome Yielding 100%
Pure Metal Shows Increased Importance With
Expected Increased Demand for “Magic Metal”
Written for the
Christian Science Monitor
By LOUIS R. HUBER
NOME, Alaska — A mine that
produces no ore but, rather, al
most pure metal is under devel
opment about 35 miles north of
here.
It is the only native bismuth
mine in the world, in a deposit
that is minera logically unique.
Nowhere else, so far as is known,
does bismuth occur in its native,
or pure-metal, state.
Production of this metal here
tofore has been achieved entirely
as a by-product of copper and
lead ores.
Around a million and a half
pounds of bismuth are consumed
yearly in the United States—in
manufacture of pharmaceutical
salts and low-melting-point sold
ers such as are used in fire-pre
vention sprinkler heads.
Just recently, however, more
ambitious and valuable uses have
been found for bismuth.
Combined with uranium, it
forms one of the fluid fuels neces
sary in an atomic power plant.
It is the most diamagnetic
metal known: a sphere or bar of
it is repelled by a magnet. When
present in other metals, even in
small quantities, bismuth renders
them brittle and decreases their
electrical conductivity.
Recently a method has been de
veloped for manufacture of duc
tile bismuth wire—which, when
it is placed in a magnetic field,
becomes less conductive electric
ally.
This property opens up a wide
field for improved current and
voltage-control components in X
ray, radio, television, electronic
calculator and other applications.
Bismuth is the most negative
material known for electric
thermocouples, and it is the only
variable rectifier known. It has
greater resistance change due to
temperature variation than any
other electrical conductor.
Anticipating increased demand
for this “magic metal,” the so
called Paley report on “Resources
for Freedom,” submitted in 1952,
says that by 1975 it is likely that
five million pounds of bismuth
may be needed annually for UJ5.
consumption.
That amount of bismuth prob
ably cannot be supplied from the
usual copper and lead ore by
product sources.
Also, says the Paley report,
“Bismuth production has in the
past been limited by cartel activi
ties.” Most bismuth for U.S. con
sumption now comes from Peru,
Canada, Yugoslavia and Mexico.
Despite the anticipated sharp
increase in demand for bismuth,
however, government authorities
maintain that stockpiles of the
metal are sufficient. E.H. Weaver,
assistant director for materials of
the Office of Defense Mobiliza
tion, says:
“There are more than ample
supplies (of bismuth) for defense
needs and. therefore, this agency
could not justify the expenditure
of government funds for further
expansion of new sources of bis
muth at this time.”
Government support for such
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mineral expansion has been
given, usually in the form of De
fense Minerals Exploration Ad
ministration matching loans, for
a number of strategic minerals;
also, liberal financial aid from
the U. S. to mines in foreign
countries has been given.
The native bismuth deposit
near here, however, is having to
struggle along as best it can on
private capital. That is very diffi
cult in Alaska’s present high
priced economy but it is barely
possible, according to local min
ing men, that it will succeed.
Fortunately—and this flies in
the face of the “ample stockpile”
argument—the price of bismuth
has soared in recent years and
shows no sign of dropping.
During World War II it was
pegged at $1.25 a pound; when
controls were lifted it was the
only metal whose price went up.
In July, 1946 it sold for $1.60 a
pound; by December, 1946, its
price was $1.80 a pound.
Throughout 1948 and 1949 bis
muth sold for $2 a pound; in
1950 it went to $2.25 a pound
and has stayed there ever since.
Private users of bismuth, in
cluding the Atomic Energy Com
mission have been beating a path
to this lonesome and distant out
post of the continent, assuring
local miners that every pound of
bismuth they can find will be
purchased.
The native bismuth near here
—at Charley Creek, a tributary
of the Sinuk River — was dis
May Be Opportunities
For Coal Strip Mining
In Homer District
WASHINGTON, (P—Two small
areas on lower Deep Creek, in the
Homer, Alaska, district, offer pos
sibilities for coal strip mining op
erations, the Geological Survey
says in a report made public this
week.
Onthe other hand, field work
the past two summers in four
localities of the Little Susitna
district, of the Matanuska coal
field, show the coal to be below
^minimum standards in both
thickness and quality for mining
under: present conditions, another
1 report says.
The Homer district report says
that an “essentially horizontal”
bed of lignitic coal, about 4 feet
thick, was found to underlie at
least 28 acres of low stream ter
race, beneath 10 to 25 feet of over
burden.
In the Little Susitna area, pre
vious geological mapping had
shown at least 40 square miles
underlain by coal-bearing rock
and a small strip mine has been
operated at Houston, in the west
ern section for several years.
But bulldozer and power auger
work at the most promising local
ities the past two years have
failed to indicate that coal mining
there would be a good venture,
the report concluded.
Floatplane Disappears
ANCHORAGE (P—A floatplane
disappeared on a 225-mile flight
from Yakutat Bay to Cordova
Wednesday. The plane, which had
Anchorage as its eventual desti
nation, was piloted by a man
named Pusich. It was not known
if it carried any passengers.
Elmendorf Air Force Base fliers
are conducting a search.
covered by John Dahl and Louis
Erickson in 1902. They undertook
exploration and development but
gave up in 1908 for lack of suf
ficient price and market.
Work was resumed in 1951 by
two old-time Nome prospectors,
Oscar Margraf and Ignacy Kow
alski. They formed a company,
Native Bismuth, Inc., and began
further exploration.
They have now established that
the mineralized bismuth zone at
Charley Creek is at leapt 900 feet
long and 700 feet wide—and it
probably extends much farther
than those limits.
A number of open cuts on the
hilly terrain have been made, ex
posing the almost chemically
pure bismuth in the underlying
schist. A 54-foot tunnel has been
driven, and will soon be extended.
Hydroelectric power is avail
able from a nearby stream,
whose upper level flow can be
diverted into a pipe for a drop
of several hundred feet into a
Pelton wheel with attached elec
tric generator.
“In the old days we did our
mining of gold by shoveling sand
and gravel into a sluice box on the
Nome beach,” laughs Mr. Mar
graf, who is 82 years old. “Today
we have to be engineers to mine
bismuth.”
Even so, Seward Peninsula, one
one of the most highly mineral
ized areas of the continent, now
gives promise of brighter mining
days—not with the glint of yellow
gold, but of silver-like bismuth.
Hospitalizing Of Two
Witnesses Halts Senate
Bribe Investigation
WASHINGTON, UFi — A Senate
investigation of alleged bribing
and blackmail on government
contracts hit a temporary halt
today with two key witnesses in
hospitals — an accused and an
accuser.
Sen. McClellan recessing public
hearings of the Senate Investiga
tions subcommittee until Wednes
day, said he hoped Air Force
Capt. Raymond Wood will have
recovered sufficienly by then to
appear. Wool is now undergoing
treatment for a stomach ailment
in an Air Force hospital at Day
ton, Ohio.
Wool formerly headed the clo
thing section of the Armed Ser
vices Textile and Procurement
Agency in New York City.
Leon M. Levy, a New York
garment manufacturer accuses
Wool of accepting a $50,000 pay
off from a Chicago manufacturer.
Levy is- also in a hospital here
for treatment of a heart attack
which reportedly left him with a
partly paralyzed left arm.
Roger Bannister, First To
Run 4-Minute Mile,
To Wed Swedish Girl
LONDON, —Dr. Roger Ban
nister, first man to run a mile
under four minutes, disclosed
Friday nigh£ he will marry a
young Swedish portrait painter
now living in London.
Bannister, who qualified as a
doctor shortly after his record
shattering 3:59.4 at Oxford May
6, 1954, has given up competitive
running.
He is'a * resident surgeon in a
big London hospital.
His bride to be is pretty Moyra
Jacobbson, daughter of Swedish
economist Per Jacobbson, now
working in the Bank for Inter
national Settlement in Switzer
land. Both Bannister and Miss
Jacobbson are 26.
Letter-Size File Folders For
Sale At The Nome Nugget Office.
IN THE KIMBERLY DIAMOND MINES,
IN SOUTH AFRICA, DOCS ON A
CABLE-LINE PATROL ARE
USED AS GUARDS AND FDR POLICE WORK
ORIGINALLY ALL FOX-TERRIERS
were ROUGH-COATED
i
)
X
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THE KERRY BLUE TERRIER IS THE
NAT/ONAL DOC OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC
© 1950, Gaines Dog Research Center, N. X. C.
From Sandspit to King Island Village . . .
From Front Street to points north . . .
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