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By H. H. Stout

In the early fall of 1925, the writer was conducting, in the Ledoux and Co. laboratory, New York, experiments directed toward ascertaining the effect on its impurity content when cathode copper was subjected to a current of various gases at an elevated temperature below the melting point. The apparatus consisted of a vertical I-in. dia. silica tube about 12 in. long, heated on the outside. The cathodes were broken to pass 3/8-in. mesh, and a current of various different gases was passed up through a 4-in. long column of these loose cathode particles in the vertical tube furnace. Temperature was maintained to 1500º to 1600ºF. and the gas treatments lasted from 3 to 6 hr. The writer observed that whenever reducing gas (H2 or CO) was used, these cathode particles stuck together at points of contact with each other. The cohesion was so marked and tenacious that an examination was made of the fractured surfaces, when cathode particles were broken from the cluster. Crystal growth was always found to have taken place across the surfaces where separate particles were in contact, but only after all oxides, sulphates, etc., had been completely removed. The idea of a possible new process was then conceived and was disclosed to A. M. Smoot (V. P. Ledoux and Co.) with intent to obtain his views. The first conception as given Smoot was "to gas-clean broken cathodes, put them in an extrusion press, solidify and extrude them at around 1500ºF." Smoot's reaction, after a few moments considera- tion, was, "It looks perfectly all right to me.'' The writer and his assistants, W. H. Osborn and H. H. Stout, Jr., after conferring as to ways and means, decided to go ahead with preliminary laboratory experiments, which, it was thought, would move the new process from the possible to the probable. This program followed a course indicated by three basic considerations: 1. Since brittle cathodes were often unintentionally produced, it seemed probable that the laws controlling this type of deposition could be ascertained. 2. We had already proved the gas-cleaning feature. 3. There remained to prove: whether a sound, homogeneous metal billet could be produced with crystal growth established over the entire surface of each individual particle in the billet; and, if so, what would be the physical properties? Osborn arranged with Columbia University for conducting experiments in its research laboratory to prove or disprove the third item; Columbia assigned C. A. Phillipi, Jr. to assist in the project. A press with a cylinder 2 in. high and of I-in. dia. was used. It was surrouilded and heated by a resistance coil 01 Nichrome wire. Broken tough cathodes were used. Experimental Procedure The first run took place March 18, 1926. The resistance wire gave out when temperature of 1000ºF. was obtained. Pressure was immediately applied: perceptible ram movement stopped when 39,000 lb. per sq. in. on the copper was reached, with a maxi-

Jan 1, 1941

By E. Gilpin

The following notes may serve to bring before your Institute an idea of the iron-ore resources of Pictou County. Enough work has been done to permit an estimate to be formed of their quality and probable extent. As yet the systematic mining and smelting of ironore in Nora Scotia is confined to the operations of the Steel Company of Canada, in Colchester County. Although the locality I am about to describe appears, in many respects, well adapted to iron smelting, etc., no attempts have yet been made to begin work. Nora Scotian capital is more readily turned to lumbering, fishing, and shipping ventures; and such an investment appears equally foreign to the rest of the Dominion. I need not, however, go further into this part of the subject, and can only hope that my notes may prove serviceable as indicating a probable field for future development. The accompanying map shows the position of the harbor of Pictou relative to the coal and iron-ore fields, and to the railways which intersect them. The branch of the Intercolonial Railway, running from Truro to Pictou, forms the western boundary of the iron-ore district, which extends beyond the point where the New Glasgow and Cape Breton Railway crosses the French River. The iron-ore district may be roughly described as a triangle formed by the ore-outcrops and the two railways, the former making the base, and the latter the sides of the triangle, the apex resting on the coal-field at New Glasgow. The drainage of the country is toward the Gulf of St. Lawrence, through the Middle, East, Sutherland's, and French rivers; and the surface is undulatory, seldom exceeding two hundred feet above the sea-level, except in the district lying between Glengarry and the upper waters of the French and Sutherland's rivers, where a maximum height of about five hundred feet is reached at several points. Geologically speaking, the district embraces two divisions, the Carboniferous and the Silurian, the latter resting on strata provisionally considered to be of pre-Cambrian age. As no geological

Jan 1, 1886

By Noel Stearn

WHEN the Age of Machinery was suddenly thrust upon civilization about the beginning of the 19th century, an unprecedented demand for mineral resources sprang up. This demand brought about the rapid development of the known ore deposits and the discovery of such other deposits as could be encountered by energetic and canny prospectors. Thus in the countries now reasonably accessible nearly all orebodies have been located except those which are totally concealed even from the eyes and "senses" of experienced and expert prospectors. The high rate of exhaustion of known ore deposits and the necessity of looking farther and farther ahead for raw materials as a matter of insurance on the stupendous capital outlays involved in mining, development, and conversion operations, have resulted in exceptional activity in three different fields of effort. The first is purely geographic. Prospectors are now penetrating the few hitherto inaccessible regions in the hope of stumbling upon exposed ore deposits or locating visible indications of their presence. The second is chemical. Industrial chemists and metallurgists are seeking to facilitate the exploitation of lower grade ores or to find methods of recovering valuable metals from common substances. In the third field of effort lie the activities of the economic geologist and the mining engineer, who endeavor to locate concealed ore deposits which would remain hidden from the prospector no matter how expert or conscientious he might be. Obviously the task which such a man must face is both exacting and indefinite, and the tools which he has heretofore been permitted to bring to it are, for the most part, abstract-a knowledge of certain fundamental principles and processes involved in the origin, occurrence, structure, and distribution of deposits of natural resources and of the rocks which form the environments of those deposits; and a process. of reasoning by analogy supplemented by the use of the diamond drill, or such artificial exposure as -the test pit, trench, shaft, or tunnel.

Jan 1, 1928

By George M. Schwartz

WHEN reviewing the progress made in mining geology for the year 1953, one might say that not much has been accomplished and, indeed, in a subject such as economic geology not much progress should be expected in the 10 months of the year which elapsed before this article was prepared. This seeming lack of progress, however, disappears when the facts are investigated a bit. There undoubtedly are more economic geologists at work than ever before. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that more geologists are now employed by a single company in the Lake Superior district than were employed in the whole district 20 years ago. In most mining districts geologists are busy with numerous problems of production, development, and exploration and some give an occasional thought to the scientific problems of the science, or rather the art, of mining geology. In fact, this very intense activity of mining geologists is one reason why progress seems slow; they do not have time to write up results of investigations. There is also a great amount of work being done which is not released because of company policy. Conditions have improved very much in recent years but mining corporations, in general, have some distance to go before attaining par with the petroleum industry in this respect.

Jan 2, 1954

Mr. Brown : .That part of the Standard Company's plant which has been added since the publication of Mr. Leggett's paper, and is described in mine, renders the single-phase, alternating system, which Mr. Hale has called " unelastic," much more elastic than it had been. The original plant at Bodie was substantially the same as the Telluride plant mentioned in his paper. The machines came from the same shops, and were practically the same; but while the Telluride Company has changed completely to a polyphase system, the Standard Company has retained its original plant, but has belted on a directcurrent generator at the receiving end, thereby converting the water-power into electricity, electricity into power, the power into electricity, and finally again electricity into power for use in the mines. This is a roundabout course, to be sure, but it shows that there are possibilities even in the out-of-date single-phase system. The only point perhaps, that deserves particular notice with respect to the hoist is the fact that the rheostat, or starting-resistance, was not built originally

Jan 1, 1897

By Otis W. Freeman

Production of oil in Indiana during 1944 is estimated at approximately 4,950,000 bbl., a decline of 6 per cent from the preceding year. Shortage of labor and material, together with governmental regulations resulting from the war, largely account for the drop in output and limited new developments. Three new pools were discovered in the state during 1944. Two of these, New Harmony, South, and Hovey, West, are in Posey County. Six wells in the New Harmony, South, field produced 66,422 bbl. of oil last year. A third field, Cato, in Pike County, did not market the oil from its discovery well during 1944. Several wells discovered oil in the Henderson field of Jay County along the Ohio state line. An important south extension of the St. Thomas field in Knox County was discovered during the year. Active drilling took place in the Inman, East, and Upton fields, Posey County, both discovered in 1943. Twenty-two wells in Inman, East, produced 151,1gr bbl. in 1944 and 12 in Upton produced 107,052 bbl. Owensville, and especially Owensville, North, in Gibson County, made large gains in production as a result of active drilling. The Dodds Bridge field in Sullivan County continued good production from deep sands reached in 1942. The Griffin continued to be the largest producer among the oil pools of Indiana, accounting for 2,004,180 bbl., over 40 per cent of the state's output. The next largest producing fields are Mt. Vernon and New Harmony, both in Posey County. The largest gas well brought in during 1944 was in the Rockport field, Spencer County, and had an initial output of 2,680,000 cu. ft. per day. The most productive gas fields in Indiana are Rockport, Spencer County, Greensburg, Decatur County, and Unionville, Monroe County. Total production in the state is . hard to estimate, as considerable gas is consumcd in farm homes and for other local uses, and never is reported, but was near 1500 million cubic feet. Some oil from the Trenton field is also used locally and is unreported from pipe-line runs. A total of 606,145 ft. of new hole was drilled in Indiana in 1944. Most of the completions were in Posey and Gibson counties, although wells were drilled in 36 different counties. During the year 331 wells were completed. Of these, 145 found oil in commercial quantities and 28 were gas wells. The initial production of the 145 oil wells was 11,908 bbl. per day. Settled production would be less, of course. The largest wells reported during the year were two on the J. W. Mann farm, in the Mt. Vernon field, with a flush flow of 500 to 800 bbl. each.. Six pools, all small "one well" affairs, were abandoned in 1944; i.e., Fleenor and Patoka in Gibson County, Grafton and Rapture in Posey County, Vaughn in Vandei-bwgh County and Millersburgh, Warrick County.

Jan 1, 1945

By Karl A. Bauer, Cornelis Bezemer

The deposition of calcium carbonate scale on surface and subsurface production equipment creates an operation problem in many oil fields. The formation water in which the carbonate-scale-forming components are initially dissolved becomes supersaturated with calcium carbonate as a result of the drop in pressure during production. The continuous flow of a supersaturated solution through the production equipment results in the growth of a dense layer of calcium-carbonate crystals. For a scale layer to be built up, the supersaturated formation water should contact the walls of the production equipment. The tendency for scale to be deposited, therefore, will be low, if the crude has a low water cut and if the water is finely dispersed in the oil. A scale problem will occur, if at a high water cut part of the water is present as free water. The rate of scale deposition will then be approximately proportional to the rate of free water production. Depending upon where the formation water becomes supersaturated, scale may be deposited in the flow line only, in both flow line and tubing, and in some cases even in the perforations and in the formation near the wellbore. In the South Sumatran fields (Indonesia) the main difficulties encountered due to the deposition of calcium-carbonate scale have been restriction of flow through tubings and flow lines, wear and abrasion of plungers and liners, and stuck plungers or wellhead valves. So far, the only methods of combating the *Presently associated with Brunei Shell Petroleum Co., Ltd.. Seria. scale problem have been routine acidizing and additional well pulling. As for the pumping wells, it was estimated that some 50 percent of the total well-pulling effort was directly attributable to scale deposition. The most promising alternative was to prevent the deposition of calcium carbonate scale by means of chemicals. Inorganic polyphosphates such as sodium hexametaphosphate and trisodium polyphosphate are known to retard the formation of scale by the "threshold action". They are adsorbed on specific faces of the crystal nuclei and thus prevent crystal growth, thereby stabilizing supersaturation. Polyphosphates are effective at very low concentrations ( a few ppm), and far less than stoichiometric quantities are required to keep the scaling ions in solution. Recent investigations on barium sulfate scale1 have confirmed this mechanism. The types of polyphosphate mentioned can be applied as concentrated aqueous solutions either squeezed into the formation, lubricated down the annulus or injected via macaroni string. Several squeeze jobs with polyphosphate solutions have been carried out in the South Sumatran fields, however, with disappointing results. Lubrication down the annulus and injection through a macaroni string were not considered attractive in this area because of the kind of equipment and the degree of supervision these techniques require. Polyphosphates are also available in a granular, glassy form, which, in contrast with the readily soluble types already mentioned, show an extremely low

Jan 1, 1970

Bernard MacDonald, Guanajuato, Mexico (communication to the Secretary*):—Mr. Iceyes's paper is very interesting to me because of my personal experience with the development of the ore-deposits of Lake Valley.

Jan 1, 1909

By A. W. Doepke

CLIMAX is situated in the heart of the high Rockies at Fremont Pass on the Continental Divide. This setting naturally throws some of the romantic aura of the old mining camps around the town. In its early days it was much like them, even to its air of impermanence. Its founders had faith in the future-as did every adventurer who started a hole in the ground and called it a mine. In those days, however, all available money was expended on the mine, and those who labored on the job had to he content with rugged living arrangements. The visitor at Climax today. however, sees a townsite carefully laid out to enhance the natural' beauty of the surroundings. There are 250 houses and 43 apartments which have been carefully designed by an architect, and missing is the long line of houses of the same type. Every house is of a different design, all being modern in every respect, with haths, running water, electricity, and .sewage disposal. They vary in size from three to six rooms and rent for $5 per room per month. A complete, well-designed water-treatment plant supplies water for domestic purposes.

Jan 1, 1946

Mark Twain once observed that "Everyone complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it." Not too long ago, the same observation held true for the problem of air pollution. During the past 25 years, however, the mounting concern over air pollution has spurred industrial and governmental research to find ways and means to combat the menacing situation. But for all the time and money spent in recent years to fight it, air pollution is still a major problem in most industrialized communities in America. At the SME Fall Meeting last September, coal's responsibility for such pollution was aired at an informative panel discussion moderated by Ernst Hall. The many-sided problem of air pollution became readily apparent as five experts, representing industry and government, parlayed over the task of cleaning up dirty air. Their opening comments are reprinted here.

Jan 11, 1964

By I. A. Violic, L. D. Cruz, M. A. Solari

In Exxon's Los Bronces Expansion Project in Chile, a stochastic simulation is performed to resolve the complex decision problem of matching the mine to mill system capacities from both technical and economic standpoints. The unique combination of weather conditions at the mine and the 30-km (18.6 mile) belt conveyor network for ore transport to the mill necessitates this analysis in the planning phase to optimize the design capacity of the system. Appropriate statistical distributions of major equipment performance, snow storm duration, power outage, etc., are developed from actual mine local records and manufacturers' specifications. The interactions of operational constraints including ore storage capacities, number and sizes of individual equipment, ore variations, and mine and mill production rates are studied more realistically than in a traditional planning approach. Details of the computer modeling and typical results of simulation studies are discussed.

Jan 1, 1984

By P. W. George

This paper presents geological data regarding deposits of over 7,500,000 tons of fine-grained sulphide ore in barite gangue. A series of pyroclastics and arkoses was intruded by sills of quartz porphyry in connection with batholithic intrusions of granite 3 miles from Buchans. Gentle folding, with fracturing and shearing of tuff beds and intruded quartz porphyry, accompanied and followed the intrusion of granite and porphyry. The sulphide-barite mineralization is localized primarily in fractured and sheared tuff beds, but also in the sheared quartz porphyry. Two structures have proved particularly favorable for mineralization—one, the center of an anticline; the other, a series of weak, incompetent tuff beds intruded by thin sills of quartz porphyry and located between strong beds of arkose. During the folding the weak tuff with intruded quartz porphyry was intensely sheared and contorted and subsequently mineralized by sulphides and barite. Introduction Buchans is 5 miles north of Red Indian Lake, in Central Newfoundland, at an elevation of 900 ft. above sea level and 400 ft. above Red Indian Lake, and is reached by a 37-mile private railway from Miller-town Junction. The first ore body found at Buchans was discovered some 30 years ago in the bed of Buchans River, by Matty Mitchell, an Indian woodsman employed by the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Co. Ltd. In the years following the discovery the ore was developed by shaft-sinking and drifting, with results indicating a lenticular ore body in a shear zone, containing about 100,000 tons of extremely fine-grained sulphide ore in barite gangue averaging about 0.05 oz. Au, 4 oz. Ag, 1.5 per cent Cu, 10 per cent Pb, 18 per cent Zn. Because a profitable metallurgical treatment for the ore was not found, the mine was closed down in 1911. In 1915, Mr. H. A. Guess, Vice President of the American Smelting & Refining Co., learned of the Buchans River ore body, and after metallurgical tests had been carried on from time to time in his company's testing plant a satisfactory separation of the sulphides by selective flotation was finally effected in 1925. Prospecting for additional ore bodies was begun in 1926, utilizing geophysical methods under the direction of Hans Lund-

Jan 1, 1937

By P. W. George

This paper presents geological data regarding deposits of over 7,500,000 tons of fine-grained sulphide ore in barite gangue. A series of pyroclastics and arkoses was intruded by sills of quartz porphyry in connection with batholithic intrusions of granite 3 miles from Buchans. Gentle folding, with fracturing and shearing of tuff beds and intruded quartz porphyry, accompanied and followed the intrusion of granite and porphyry. The sulphide-barite mineralization is localized primarily in fractured and sheared tuff beds, but also in the sheared quartz porphyry. Two structures have proved particularly favorable for mineralization-one, the center of an anticline; the other, a series of weak, incompetent tuff beds intruded by thin sills of quartz porphyry and located between strong beds of arkose. During the folding the weak tuff with intruded quartz porphyry was intensely sheared and contorted and subsequently mineralized by sulphides and barite. INTRODUCTION Buchans is 5 miles north of Red Indian Lake, in Central Newfound- land, at an elevation of 900 ft. above sea level and 400 ft. above Red Indian Lake, and is reached by a 37-mile private railway from Miller- town Junction. The first ore body found at Buchans was discovered some 30 years ago in the bed of Buchans River, by Matty Mitchell, an Indian woodsman employed by the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Co. Ltd. In the years following the discovery the ore was developed by shaft-sinking and drifting, with results indicating a lenticular ore body in a shear zone, containing about 100,000 tons of extremely fine-grained sulphide ore in barite gangue averaging about 0.05 oz. Au, 4 oz. Ag, 1.5 per cent Ch, 10 per cent Pb, 18 per cent Zn. Because a profitable metallurgical treatment for the ore was not found, the mine was closed down in 1911. In 1915, Mr. H. A. Guess, Vice President of the American Smelting & Refining Co., learned of the Buchans River ore body, and after metallurgical tests had been carried on from time to time in his company's testing plant a satisfactory separation of the sulphides by selective flotation was finally effected in 1925. Prospecting for additional ore bodies was begun in 1926, utilizing geophysical methods under the direction of Hans Lund-

Jan 1, 1937

By R. O. Burt

The economics of recovering slimes by gravity concentration, except in a few highly specialized cases, was hampered by the lack of suit- able high capacity equipment. However, in the last decade increasing cost of power and reagents, coupled with the development of high capacity units, has led to a reappraisal of the benefits of slime gravity concentration. This paper seeks to analyze the merits of gravity concentration, and the constraints placed upon it by the laws of motion. It traces the recent developments of unit processes, and their application to a wide range of minerals. The economics of gravity concentration are also discussed.

Jan 1, 1980

By A. F. Lucas

Introduction BELLE ISLE, located in the low sea marshes near Atchafalaya Bay, is the southeasternmost of the famous Five Salt Islands of Louisiana. Rising about 80 ft. (24 m.) above the level of the surrounding marsh and being some 800 acres (323 ha.) in extent, it constitutes a striking landmark on the low Gulf coast, and since the eighteenth century, when it played an important part in the operation of the buccaneers, it has been intermittently frequented by man. In 1897, the writer discovered the great mass of salt that underlies the island and shortly afterward pub-lished a brief account of the geology of Belle Isle and the neighboring salt islands.' In that paper he described principally the salt, but pointed out also the occurrence of petroleum and of sulphur in the strata above the salt. Since that time the island has been extensively explored by the drill, and the developments up to 1908 have been described by Veatch2 and Harris," and Knapp.4 The writer's early conclusions as to the probable presence of sulphur in considerable quantity have been confirmed by the later drilling, some of the wells having found quantities of gas containing sulphur dioxide and a number of sulphur-bearing strata as well. Under the stimulus of the present keen demand for sulphur for war purposes, a syndicate of New York capitalists was recently formed to explore the sulphur resources of the island in more detail. Under the writer's direction, six wells were drilled for this syndicate during the winter of 1916-17. The present paper presents briefly the results of this work and sums up the present knowledge of the geology of this highly interesting locality.

Jan 9, 1917

By George B. Clark

COMMERCIAL strip mining of coal was first begun in the state of Illinois in 1911.1 The annual tonnage of coal produced from coal strip mines in the state was very small until 1924, when the strip mines shipped 1.68 pet of the total state shipping mine tonnage. Since then, strip mines have gradually come into their own by producing a sizable percentage of the coal produced in the state. Table 1 shows the coal tonnage shipped from both underground and strip coal mines in the state of Illinois for selected years. The table illustrates the major role that strip mines play in the state's coal industry. Today, strip mining is generally conducted in areas where the coal seams lie so close to the surface of earth that a stripping method of mining the coal seam is cheaper than an underground method. Strip mining not only recovers 100 pct of the coal deposit, but may also be used as a method of mining large acreages of coal abandoned by the closing of underground mines.

Jan 1, 1949

By A. W. Furbank

IN reviewing the aerial cameras produced in different countries, it becomes apparent that in nearly all of them an attempt has been made to secure the greatest possible angle of view. This angle, of course, is determined by the objective. The objectives most commonly in use in aerial cameras have a maximum angle of 65°. The objective developed for this new Zeiss camera combines freedom from distortion and brilliant definition, with an angle of 95°. Aerial mapping, it is claimed, has been placed on a different economic basis, and new possibilities presented, par-ticularly in connection with automatic stereoscopic plotting instruments, to which some short references are made. One way of enlarging the angle of view is to couple several instruments with their axes convergent, thereby producing a multilens camera. Typi-cal of cameras of this sort in the United States is the Bagley four-lens camera, which later was developed into the five-lens camera (T3-A) of the U. S. Air Corps. More recently, in order to get away from the unfavorable Maltese cross image field of the five-lens camera, and to obtain a more practical form, two five-lens cameras were combined. By using them in tandem and rotating them by 45° relatively to each other, a ten-lens camera was produced, covering an octagonal ground area, with a total angle of view of 140°. Similar designs have been evolved in other countries. In all of them, however, a number of difficulties have arisen, quite apart from their large weight and high cost. Because of their complex mechanism, numerous shutters and magazines, and the high precision with which these parts must be interadjusted and synchronized, these cameras are far from dependable. Moreover, a multilens camera by itself does not yet constitute a complete outfit for producing pictures suitable for photogrammetric survey. Because all the component pictures, except the central one, are obliques, it is always necessary to employ rectifying apparatus which transforms the marginal views to the perspective of the central one. In multilens cameras with many individual magazines, it is not convenient to

Jan 1, 1938

By D. F. Malott

The Michigan Dept. of State Highways makes extensive use of geophysics for subsurface surveying which would be applicable for uses in other fields. Examples of resistivity surveys are given which include a proposed large-volume excavation with suggestions for land use after excavation, subsurface evaluation for engineering design, and a subsurface survey for land appraisal. An example of a combined refraction seismic and resistivity survey is shown where the resistivity is used for outlining the unconsolidated soils, while the seismic method is used to outline bedrock and to evaluate it for rippability. A refraction seismic survey at the bottom of bridge caissons for evaluation of bedrock uniformity and a rehtive aid in assessing rock strength is reported. These past several years have been a period of unprecendented construction and commercial expansion. Vast private manufacturing complexes and government road, power, and office projects are being built or are in planning stages. Nearly everywhere, municipalities are expanding outward and upward. Many towns are developing into cities and many cities are displaying new skylines, and the building boom shows little sign of slowing down.

Jan 1, 1970

By Harry T. Davis, Jasper L. Stuckley

The object of this paper is to record and interpret field and laboratory observations made by the writers during five years of study of the barite deposits of North Carolina. Deposits of barite are known to occur in three localities in North Carolina (Fig. 1) two of which—the Hot Springs and Kings Mountain —contain material of economic value. The Hot Springs area begins near Bluff, some 6 miles south of Hot Springs, and continues northeast by Stackhouse; a total length of 7 miles. The Kings Mountain deposits lie along a belt that extends from the north end of Crowders Mountain in a southwestward direction, along the east side of this and Kings Mountain, to Kings Creek, South Carolina. The third locality is 3½ miles southeast of Hillsboro, Orange County, a short distance west of the highway leading from Hillsboro to Chapel Hill. It is not known when barite was first discovered in North Carolina, but production from the Hot Springs area began some 50 years ago. The state has never produced large quantities of barite—usually there have been less than three producers—and definite figures are not available, but reasonably reliable estimates indicate a total production of 300,000 tons. From 1901 through 1920 barite mining was on a seemingly prosperous basis and a large tonnage was shipped from the Hot Springs and Kings Mountain areas. With the depression of 1920 the industry began to decline and production practically ceased in 1926. Geology of the Barite Areas In the Hot Springs area barite is found in the Max Patch granite of Archean age and the Snowbird formation of Cambrian age. The Max Patch granite is of two varieties, one gray to whitish and the other red. The gray granite is coarse, at times porphyritic, and composed of quartz, orthoclase and plagioclase feldspar, with a little biotite and muscovite. The red granite is also coarse and differs from the other only in having conspicuous pink and red feldspar. Both varieties have been much metamorphosed and weathered in places, so that they contain secondary

Jan 1, 1935

By Harry T. Davis, Jasper L. Stuckley

The object of this paper is to record and interpret field and laboratory observations made by the writers during five years of study of the barite deposits of North Carolina. Deposits of barite are known to occur in three localities in North Carolina (Fig. 1) two of which—the Hot Springs and Kings Mountain —contain material of economic value. The Hot Springs area begins near Bluff, some 6 miles south of Hot Springs, and continues northeast by Stackhouse; a total length of 7 miles. The Kings Mountain deposits lie along a belt that extends from the north end of Crowders Mountain in a southwestward direction, along the east side of this and Kings Mountain, to Kings Creek, South Carolina. The third locality is 3½ miles southeast of Hillsboro, Orange County, a short distance west of the highway leading from Hillsboro to Chapel Hill. It is not known when barite was first discovered in North Carolina, but production from the Hot Springs area began some 50 years ago. The state has never produced large quantities of barite—usually there have been less than three producers—and definite figures are not available, but reasonably reliable estimates indicate a total production of 300,000 tons. From 1901 through 1920 barite mining was on a seemingly prosperous basis and a large tonnage was shipped from the Hot Springs and Kings Mountain areas. With the depression of 1920 the industry began to decline and production practically ceased in 1926. Geology of the Barite Areas In the Hot Springs area barite is found in the Max Patch granite of Archean age and the Snowbird formation of Cambrian age. The Max Patch granite is of two varieties, one gray to whitish and the other red. The gray granite is coarse, at times porphyritic, and composed of quartz, orthoclase and plagioclase feldspar, with a little biotite and muscovite. The red granite is also coarse and differs from the other only in having conspicuous pink and red feldspar. Both varieties have been much metamorphosed and weathered in places, so that they contain secondary

Jan 1, 1935