Platt Mine

Past Producer in Carbon county in Wyoming, United States with commodities Niobium (Columbium), Tantalum, REE, Uranium
Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Public Land Survey System information
  6. Commodities
  7. Materials information
  8. Host and associated rocks
  9. Nearby scientific data
  10. Ore body information
  11. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  12. Ownership information
  13. Production statistics
  14. Links to other databases
  15. Bibliographic references
  16. General comments
  17. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10107762
MRDS ID D001896
MAS/MILS ID 560070203
Record type Site
Current site name Platt Mine
Alternate or previous names R. Platte Property, Platte Mine, Ralph Platte, Cox
Included sites Big Creek Pegmatite Area

Comments on the site identification

  • The mine labeled Platt Mine on Trent Creek topo, about 1 mile to the west, is NOT the Platt Mine. That mine is the Big Creek Copper mine. The real Platt Mine is shown as a shaft, simply labeled "Mine" on the Elkhorn Point topo in the S2 of the SE4 of the SW4 of sec. 3. The NNW trending road junction in the NE4 of the NW4 of sec. 10 is very faint and easy to miss.
  • Identification of Cox Mine is questionable. The Cox is described in DMEA Docket 2584 as being about a mile SE of the Express Lode (also known as Wagoner or Gibraltar). A brief mention of the Cox mine near Encampment is on p. 46 of Bull. 50 (1966 edition). Cox mine supposedly assayed 2.3% to 74.5% Cu, plus a little Au and Ag.

Geographic coordinates

Point of reference Main Entrance
Geographic coordinates: -106.48611, 41.11833 (WGS84)
Location accuracy 10(meters)
Relative position Location by GPS and verified on Google Earth.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Carbon(county)

Wyoming(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Elkhorn Point(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Saratoga(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Rawlins(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper North Platte(hydrologic unit)

North Platte(hydrologic accounting unit)

North Platte(hydrologic subregion)

Missouri(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Bureau of Land Management(Bureau of Land Management WY)

Bureau of Land Management WY BLM(Type of land area)

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Wyoming Carbon

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
6th Principal 013N 081W 3 C of S2 of S2 of SW4 Wyoming

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Niobium (Columbium) Critical Primary
Tantalum Critical Primary
REE Critical Primary
Uranium Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Columbite Ore
Euxenite Ore
Monazite Ore
Allanite Ore

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Pegmatite
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Precambrian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Precambrian
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Precambrian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Precambrian

Nearby scientific data

Main Entrance (1) -106.48611, 41.11833

Economic information

Ore body information

  • Length 48.77M
    Width 21.34M
    Depth to bottom 22.86M

Comments on the geologic information

  • PEGMATITE IN PRECAMBRIAM ROCKS W/ ASSOCIATED RA

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Significant No
Production years 1957

Ownership information

  • Type Owner
    Owner R.E. and R.H. Platt (or Platte)
    Year 1973
  • Type Owner
    Owner RALPH PLATTE 9-73
    Year 1973

Production statistics

  • Year 1957
    Material Produced 3,115 lbs Euxenite valued at $5,297 in 1957.
    Accuracy Accurate
  • Year 2010
    Material 13 st X .9071847 = 12 mt Uranium ore.
    Ore mined 12mt

Comments on the production information

  • MINING PART - TIME ONLY

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    HOUSTON, R. S., 1961, THE BIG CREEK PEGMATITE AREA, CARBON COUNTY, WYOMING, GEOL. SURV. OF WYOMING PRELIM. REPORT NO. 1, 11 p.

  • Production

    Osterwald and others, 1966, Mineral Resources of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bulletin 50, 287 p.

  • Production

    HOUSTON, R. S., 1961, THE BIG CREEK PEGMATITE AREA, CARBON COUNTY, WYOMING, GEOL. SURV. OF WYOMING PRELIM. REPORT (unnumbered), 11 p.

  • Deposit

    Osterwald and others, 1966, Mineral Resources of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bulletin 50, p. 221.

  • Deposit

    Hausel and Sutherland, 2000, WSGS Bull. 71, p. 223.

  • Deposit

    Hausel, W.D., 1993, Guide to the geology, mining districts, and ghost towns of the Medicine Bow Mountains and Snowy Range Scenic Byway: Geological Survey of Wyoming Public Information Circular No. 32, 53 p.

  • Deposit

    AEC PRELIM. FIELD INV., AIRBORNE RA ANOMALIES

  • Deposit

    WYO.G.S.FOR MAS

  • Deposit

    Gregory, R.W., Jones, R.W., and Cottingham, K.D., 2010, Uranium map of Wyoming: Wyoming State Geological Survey Map Series 94, scale 1:500,000.

  • Deposit

    DMEA Docket No. 2584, 31 p., http://minerals.usgs.gov/dockets/scans/wy/dmea/2584_DMEA.pdf

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit "Niobium, yttrium, and uranium oxides occur in a pegmatite that has been mined since 1956. In addition to the ordinary pegmatite minerals, the following are known to occur: euxenite, monazite, columbite, and allanite. Euxenite is the most abundant rare earth mineral. The pegmatite, which is 160 ft. long by 70 ft. wide has been mined to a depth of 75 ft. In 1957, 3,115 pounds of euxenite valued at $5,297 were produced from this deposit." (Osterwald and others, 1966, p. 221)
Deposit Location by GPS within 16 feet. Ground littered with muscovite. Mostly coarse grained pegmatite with abundant plagioclase, quartz, smoky quartz, biotite, and muscovite. Very small dense chonchoidal fractured chips, but unable to locate any in the rock matrix. Is this the monazite or euxenite? Old shaft has been completly encased/capped in concrete with a steel cage. Scintellometer reading at 1K = 15-18 cps (off-scale at 0.1 k).
Deposit The euxite pegmatite at the Platt mine east of the Big Creek copper mine in SW section 3, T13N, R81W, produced some of the best prismatic, orthorhombic, euxenite specimens in the world. According to Raiph Platt, this pegmatite was at one time the best source of euxenite in the world. The euxenite is black, vitreous, opaque, and weakly radioactive." (Hausel and Sutherland, 2000, p. 223)

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 1975-04-01 Parker, Raymond L. U.S. Geological Survey
Updater 2010-03-01 Wilson, Anna B. U.S. Geological Survey Updated after site visit Sept. 7, 2009. Revised 6/25/10. Revised again merging duplicate records on 4/27/11. And again 23-may-2011. And again 21-dec-2011.
Reporter 1983-11-18 Intermountain Field Operations Center (IFOC) U.S. Bureau of Mines MAS 0560070286 = newMRDS 10254268, MAS 0560070203 = newMRDS 10230498, MAS 0560070200 = newMRDS 10181594, MAS 0560070409 = newMRDS 10254630

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

External references