Gold in the South
 

The gold belt of the States of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama has unquestionably been greatly neglected, both by the practical miners and the capitalists of the country. The gold deposits of the Southern States are no new discovery, Mines were opened two generations ago and have been worked with varying success of and on ever since. The rich discoveries in the West drew attention away from these mines, and the fact that there was no method by which all the ores could be worked and their true value realized caused mines partly developed to be abandoned. Several fortunes have been made from the better worked and better known mines. With the improvements in mining and milling processes which have come about within the past few years new attention ahs been directed to these Southern gold fields. Old mines are again being developed and found to have most valuable deposits, and new ones in new localities are being discovered. The modern processes will enable these Southern gold mines to be worked to the fullest extent, and the world will probably soon awaken to the fact that what was popularly supposed to be a worked-out region is in reality one of the greatest gold-bearing belts of the continent. In Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama there are a great many of the best opportunities for the investment of capital in the developing and working of mines, and the pioneers in giving attention to this gold region will reap great returns. Mining properties in the South can be purchased very cheaply, and with experienced and intelligent mining operations can be conducted at small cost. The articles following on the gold belts of the various States will fully describe the character of the country and the deposits and give the practical miner an idea of the character of work to be done and the results which can be reached. The miner will desire to look over the ground himself, make his own investigations. Personal examination is always best, and it is to be hoped that very many of those interested in the development of precious metal

mines of the country will make exploration trips through the Southern States. The gold belts as a rule, starting in Virginia, run northeast and southwest. Going south the deposits end in the State of Alabama. The gold fields of the South are along or adjacent to lines of the Southern Railway, and the Land and Industrial Department of that road will extend its assistance to all who desire to look up the opportunities for profitable mining. A careful reading of the articles in this little book will certainly more than pay for the time occupied.

"Gold Deposits in Virginia"

The gold ores of the Southern Appalachian States occur in the Piedmont and Mountain regions throughout the great belt of crystalline and metamorphic rocks stretching in a southwesterly direction from Maryland to Alabama 600 to 700 miles in length, and 50 to 150 miles in width. This broad area may be subdivided into several minor gold-bearing belts: 1)The Virginia belt; 2) the eastern Carolina belt; 3) the Carolina slate belt; 4) the Carolina igneous belt; 5) the King's Mountain belt; 6) the South Mountain belt; 7) the Georgia belt; 8) the Alabama belt.
While gold mining in Virginia has not reached proportions as large as in the Carolinas and Georgia, yet a considerable amount of prospecting and mining work has been done, and there are some promising deposits in the Appalachian region of the State. This gold belt, which begins in Maryland and extends into North Carolina, lies just east of the Blue Ridge. It has a width of from 10 to 20 miles, and covers an area of about 4,000 square miles, mainly in Fauquier, Culpeper, Stafford, Orange, Spottsylvania, Louisa, Fluvanna, Goochland and Buckingham counties. There is another small and less important gold belt lying just west of the Blue Ridge, mainly in Floyd, Montgomery and Grayson counties, but this are embraces as far as exploited, mainly placer deposits, and these of no large importance.

"Nugget Found at Crawford Mine, Stanley County, N.C., near Southern Railway, April 8, 1895. Weight 8 pounds 5 ounces. Picture about three-fifths actual size."

The country rocks of this main belt east of the Blue Ridge are mainly mica, gneiss and mica schist, which are in places often hydromicaceous, chloritic or garnetiferous in character. T hey have a general strike of N. 20-30 degrees E, and a varying easterly dip. T he gold is usually carried in irregular lenticular quartz veins, which lie more or less parallel to both the strike and dip of the rock, and varying in width from a few inches to several feet. In many cases both the vein quartz and the slate walls are impregnated with gold-bearing pyrites. Some of these veins are quite limited, while others, such as the Fisher lode in Louisa County, are quite extensive, both in depth and length. Most of the gold thus far obtained has come from the veins and the contiguous schists, but some placer deposits have been discovered and worked. The total output of precious metals from the Virginia mines to date amounts to something more than $3,200,000.
A considerable number of mines have been opened up at intervals in Fauquier, Stafford, Culpeper, Orange and Spottsylvania counties which are grouped about the junction of the Rapidan and Rappahannock Rivers. Thus the Franklin, Wycoff and Leopold mines are located in the southern part of Fauquier County; the Eagle, Monroe, Lee and Rattlesnake mines are in Stafford County, some 10 to 12 miles northwest of Fredericksburg; the Culpeper mine is in the county of that name, some 18 miles west of Fredericksburg; the Whitehall, Kiggins, Johnston, Pullian, Grindstone-Hill, Mitchell and Goodwin mines, in the central and southern parts of Spottsylvania County; and the Vaucluse, Orange Grove, Greenwood and Melville mines are in the northeast part of Orange County.
Some of these have been so little developed that they hardly deserve to be designated as mines, but all of them have yielded more or less gold.
A gentleman who has made purchases in Culpeper County, through which the Southern Railway runs, and is now at work developing gold properties, recently wrote: "The permanent and lasting wealth of this gold field will be found in the untold millions of tons of low-grade ores. Later experiments have proven that these ores have an increasing value as depth is obtained. In 1851 Professor Overman foresaw this condition and in his work on 'Practical Mineralogy' says: 'There are gold-bearing veins in Virginia and North Carolina, which, if not equal to those of California at present, will be of greater importance in the future, and I predict more sure and lasting.'"
Perhaps the most interesting group of mines in the State is that in Louisa County, because of the possible connection or association in origin between these gold deposits and the pyrite masses which also occur in this country. The gold-bearing rocks constitute a narrow belt, but a few miles in width, which traverse the central portion of the county. The Timber Flats placer deposit, situated near the northern end of the pyrite bodies, has been worked on a considerable scale, and has been one of the most productive placer deposits in the State. The largest hindrance to its being worked successfully is the absence of an adequate water supply for hydraulic operations, but an ample supply can be pumped from the North Anna River.
The Fisher Iode, a vein near Mineral City, in Louisa County, and 2 miles east of the pyrite veins, has been exploited and worked at several place, known locally as the Harris, Luce, Slate Hill, Louisa and Warren Hill mines. Of these the Luce has been developed to a depth of 200 feet and a length of more than 1,000 feet.
Fluvanna and Goochland counties are traversed by a continuation of the narrow gold-bearing belt just referred to in Louisa County. The best known developments on the belt are the Tellurium, Bowles, Payne, Page, Hughes, Moss, Fisher, Bushy, Tagus, Gilmore, Collins, Belzora, and the Big Bird openings. Of these the Tellurium mine, which lies partly in both of these counties, has been operated at intervals since 1834, and is said to have yielded during this time $1,000,000 although it was nowhere worked to a depth greater than 60 feet.
In Buckingham County, which practically embraces the southwest end of the Virginia gold belt, the Booker mine, near Whitehall Station; the London mine, 7 miles north of the booker, are, perhaps, the two best known openings. The Garrett, Mosely, Buckingham, Morton, Morrow, Duncan, Ford and Lightfoot mines are other openings made at different points on this belt in the same county.

"Gold in the Carolinas"

By J. A. Holmes and H. B. C. Nitze, N.C. Geological Survey

The geological formations of North and South Carolina extend partially or entirely across the territory of both these States, and hence the task of describing the gold deposits of the two States in a single paper becomes an easy task>
It is, however, impossible to name the precise date of the first discovery of gold in the Untied States. In all probability some mining was done previous to the Revolutionary War, but no authentic reference to this can be obtained. In 1799 a nugget, weighing seventeen pounds, was accidentally discovered on the plantation of Mr. John Reed in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. In 1803 a twenty-eight-pound nugget was found in the same locality- the largest nugget on record in the eastern United States. Regular mining work was commenced shortly afterward; other discoveries followed; and the date 1804 may be fairly accepted as that of the first real excitement in the gold fields of the southern United States.
The earliest record of a domestic gold deposit in the United States mint was in 1804, and from that year until 1828 (inclusive) North Carolina furnished all the gold produced in this country, amounting to $110,000. During 1829 $2,500 was received from Virginia and $3,500 from South Carolina. The first returns from Georgia appear in 1830, from Tennessee in 1831, from Alabama in 1841, and from Maryland in 1868.
The early mining, as in all gold regions of the world, was confined to the stream gravel deposits and other shallow placers. The marked decrease in the production during the few years following 1834 may be explained by the partial exhaustion of these more accessible virgin placers. It was at this period that attention began to be paid to vein mining, and from 1837 to 1849 there was an enormous increase in the production, with few retrogressions; in the forties the South reached its maximum annual output, approximating $1,000,000 for the Southern States. In the early fifties the California excitements distracted the interest from the Southern fields, and an era of decreased production set in, which culminated in practical cessation during the civil war. Since then there have been periods of revival and depression, due to many minor causes; of late the annual production has been something over $250,000.
The following tabular statement shows the production of gold, by years, for North and South Carolina and by way of comparison for other Southern States. These figures include, besides the United States mint and assay office receipts, all such bullion as went abroad, or was used directly by local jewelers or otherwise, and

("Nugget found at Sam Christian mine, Montgomery County, N.C., on Southern Railway. Weight 4 pounds. Picture about four-sevenths actual size.")

represents as nearly as possible the total product of the Southern gold mines:

"Estimate of the Production of Gold and Silver in Each of the Southern States from 1799- 1879, and Annually Since"

"Nugget found at Crawford Mine, Stanley County, N.C., on Southern Railway, August 22, 1985. Weight 10 pounds. Picture about three-fifths actual size."

The gold deposits in the Carolinas, both naturally and for the sake of convenience, may be divided into the several belts (Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) as indicated on the fourth page of this pamphlet.
The eastern Carolina belt comprises an area of about 300 square miles in Halifax, Warren, Nash and Franklin Counties. The rocks are dioritic eruptives and chloritic schists, striking N. 50 degrees to 60 degrees E., and dipping southeast.
The Carolina slate belt embraces an area from 8 to 50 miles in width, extending in a southwesterly direction across the central part of North Carolina into the northern part of South Carolina, where it appears to sink beneath the coastal plain, and reappears in the eastern part of Georgia. The rocks are metamorphosed sedimentary slates and schists, at times highly silicified, and devitrified ancient volcanic rocks, often sheared. The strike is N. 20 degrees to 55 degrees E., and the dip steeply toward the northwest. Dikes of diabase are of frequent occurrence.
The Carolina igneous belt adjoins the slate belt on the west, and has a width of from 15 to 30 miles. The auriferous portion embraces an area of about 1,000 square miles. The rocks are granitic, dioritic, gabbroitic and diabasic eruptives.
The King's Mountain belt lies to the west of the igneous belt, extending across North Carolina. The productive points are widely scattered, and constitute a small aggregate area. The rocks are gneisses and schists, with some siliceous limestones, having northeast strike and southeast dip.
The South Mountain belt begins in the western part of North Carolina, in Caldwell, Burke, McDowell and Rutherford counties on the eastern flanks of the Blue Ridge, and extends into the northwestern part of South Carolina. The rocks are dioritic and granitic gneisses, striking northwest and southeast with gentle northeast dips over a large part of the area, and also northeast and southwest with southeast dips.
The gold-ore deposits of the Carolinas are of three main structural types:
1) the place deposits, which may again be subdivided into a) stream gravel deposits in both present and ancient channels, b) gulch deposits concentrated by means of secular movements, independent of fluviatile action, and c) the rotten- rock deposits or the decomposed country rock in place.
2) Quartz fissure veins, containing free gold and gold in combination with sulphurets, which may in turn be differentiated into a) clean-cut fissures of some persistence, b) a system of smaller and larger lenticular veins, approximately conformable to the schistosity of the rocks, but also intersecting the same, usually at small angles, and c) a system of reticulated veins.
3) Impregnations of free gold and finely-divided auiferous sulphurets in the country schists and slates, sometimes accompanied by small lenticular quartz intercalations. These auriferous schists are at times hundreds of feet in width, though not necessarily capable of being profitably worked over their whole extent; they constitute the low-grade ore bodies of the South.
The character of the ores is not unlike that of most other gold fields. The chief gangue mineral of the fissures ins quartz, varying from saccharodidal to vitreous, and containing fragments and partings of the country rocks. Barite, calcite and siderite are of occasional occurrence. At one locality (King's Mountain mine, N.C.) the veinstone is largely siliceous magnesian limestone.
In the auriferous slate deposits irregular lenticular quartz stringers are almost always present, and the slates are generally silicified in varying degrees up to such hardness that they resist scratching with a knife.
Below the water level, which occurs usually twenty-five to fifty feet below the surface, sulphurets make their appearance. These are mainly pyrite, though chalcopyrite, galena and zinc-blende are frequently present in certain localities, and mispickel is comparatively rare. In certain  groups of mines, particularly in the Carolina igneous belt, chalcopyrite often predominates. In a few localities (Silver Hill, Silver Valley, and other mines, N.C.) galena and zinc-blende predominate, and are high in silver, but these complex sulphurets have never been worked to any important extent, owing to the metallurgical difficulties attending their treatment. Tellurids are of vary rare occurrence in Southern ores.
It is of course difficult to give any fair idea of the value of Southern ores. In the placer gravels this is well nigh impossible, as no systematic records are at hand, and it is doubtful if any were ever kept. Compared with other gravel deposits, as those of California or New Zealand, the area and extent of the Southern deposits are very limited. The virgin ground undoubtedly

yielded handsome returns, though it was imperfectly worked, for many of the old tailings dumps have been washed over a second, third, and even as often as a seventh time at a profit. Channels running as high as $20 per cubic yard are recorded, but perhaps the vast majority of the ground worked yielded between 25 cents and $1 per cubic yard.
The auriferous rotten-rock bodies found in some districts are exceedingly variable in value. Certain small quartz stringers may run very high. Material as low as 40 cents per ton (equal to 12 cents per ton material mined) has been milled at a profit, but, as a rule, the grade of the mill-stuff is somewhat higher.
It is impossible to make any reliable statements regarding the quartz veins, the variation is so great. However, it may be said that generally the concentrated sulphurets run from $30 to $40 per ton- i.e., after the extraction of the free-milling portion, which may be from 20 to 50 cent of the value of the ore. The large bodies of low-grade auriferous schists may yield anywhere from $2 to $5 per ton in quantity.
Placer mining was the first mode of winning gold in the South, and many of the mechanisms now used universally, such as the rocker and long tom, originated here. At the present day very few gravel mines are in operations. Of those that are, two classes may be named: 1) operations on virgin deposits, 2) operations on ground that has already been worked.
On the first a good example is the Crawford mine in Stanly County, N.C., four miles southeast from Albemarle. It was first opened in 1892. The gravel bed, composed of angular quartz and slate fragments in a clay matrix, occurs in a narrow stream bottom, perhaps 250 feet in width. Its thickness is 1 1/2 to 2 feet, and the overlay is from 2 to 4 feet deep. Owing to the scarcity of water here, a novel method of washing is pursued. A wooden tank, of 200 cubic yard capacity, is situated at some elevation above the stream bed. At one end is a standpipe 30 feet high, which is supplied with water from a reservoir below by a stream pump. The gravel is hauled to the top of the tank in tram-cars and dumped. here it is washed by the discharge from the stand pipe. A line of riffled sluice-boxes runs from an opening in one side and near the bottom of the tank. The gold is collected from the bottom of the tank, and from the riffles in the sluices. It

"Nugget found at Reed Mine, Cabarrus Co., N.C., near Southern Railway, April 10, 1896. Weight 22 Pounds. Picture one-eight actual size."

occurs almost exclusively in the shape of nuggets; no quicksilver is used. In April 1895, an 8-pound nugget was found, and in August o the same year one weighing 20 pounds. The cost of working is estimated at about 50 cents per loose cubic yard.
Of the second class, the Mills property at Brindletown, Burke County, N.C., is perhaps the best example. On this and other adjoining properties of the South Mountain region some placer deposits have been profitably worked over three or four times at intervals of several years.
The best known and most extensively worked mining district in North Carolina is that at Gold Hill, at the junction of Rowan, Stanly and Cabarrus Counties. The country rock is chloritic and argillaceous schist, with the usual northeast by southwest strike, and dipping steeply to the northwest. For a distance of 1 1/2 miles along the strike and for a width of about 1,,200 yards the country rock is more or less impregnated with gold bearing pyrite, the pyrite being concentrated into more limited belts, in which are numerous lenticlar veins and small stringers of gold-bearing quartz.
Among the better defined of these veins are the Randolph, Barnhardt, Honeycut, Standard, Trautman and McMackin. The first of these has been worked to a depth of 750 feet. But little work is being done at the mine at the present time, but it is estimated that the total yield has been more than $3,000,000. The methods of treating the ore have at times been so crude that 67 per cent of the gold is said to have been lost in the tailings.
As the best example of a mine working on t a large body of low-grade slate ore, the Haile in Lancaster County, S.C., three miles northeast of Kershaw, is cited. The auriferous bodies are lenticular in shape, about 200 feet in length and 100 feet in maximum width. The pitch is 50 degrees to 60 degrees N.E. and the dip  45 degrees N.W. to vertical. The ore consists of silicified sericitic schists, impregnated with free gold and sulphurets (pyrite from 2 to 25 per cent). The average assay value is about $4 per ton. Diabase dikes intersect the ore bodies, and the richest ores are usually found in their vicinity. The greatest depth of the workings is 270 feet. The mill is a 60-stamp one, and treats 120 tons of ore per day; about 33 per cent of the gold is free milling, and the percentage of extraction is from 75 to 80 per cent. The concentrates from twenty Embrey tables amount to about 8 tons per twenty-four hours, and assay from $25 to $35 per ton. They are treated in a three-barrel Thies chlorination plant, where the extraction averages 94 per cent. The cost of roasting per ton of roasted concentrates is $2.58. The cost of chlorinating per ton of roasted concentrates is $1.45. The cost of roasting and chlorinating per ton of raw concentrates is $3.02, and per ton of ore mined 19 cents.
The Brewer mine is, next to the Haile, the best known and most productive of the South Carolina mines, and is located about 8 miles northeast of the Haile, the country rock and ores resembling that of the latter mine in many respects. The ores are low grade averaging about $3 per ton; but there is a large quantity of this ore; and, furthermore, there are here extensive placer deposits, the total width of the ore-bearing ground being given as 800 yards.
It now remains to draw some general conclusions, and to present some idea of the possible future of gold mining in the South. The above examples, taken from the few successful mines in the field, most not be accepted as typical. They are cited because the mines are developed, and in order to show that what can be done. Of the great number of mines that have at one time or another been in operation in the South but few are not working, and still fewer productively. The causes of mining failures are numerous. As in all other mining districts a certain number of failures but be attributed to the incapacity of the mine itself. At the same time good mines have been injured by speculative maneuvers and stock manipulations. The introduction of numerous patent processes and mechanical contrivances of unquestionable inferiority, often approaching the ridiculous, for crushing, amalgamation and other metallurgical treatment, explains the failure of many a mine; yet often the blame was attached, not to the defects of the process (where it belonged), but to the ores tested. After the true free-milling brown ores were practically worked out, many operations were continued on the deeper sulphuretted ores, employing simple amalgamation without attempting to recover the gold in the sulphurets, which escaped in the tailings in enormous quantities. Again, a very general mistake has been the erection of costly milling and other machinery, previous to the proper opening of the mines, and without having sufficient ore in sight to supply the works. One great drawback to investors is the fact
 

that many of the mining properties, even though entirely undeveloped, are held by the owners at figures so unreasonable and prohibitory as to preclude any fair deal. The sooner the folly of this is realized the better. Capital is needed in the South to develop its mineral resources, and mine owners must remember that the cost of an undeveloped mine is only a part of the ultimate expense of putting it in working and producing order.
All of these mistakes are gradually being comprehended, and the advantages of chlorination, cyanide treatment and smelting are becoming known. The stamp mill, very properly, is more tenaciously adhered to than ever for crushing purposes. The economic success of the chlorination process, for the treatment of concentrated sulphurets with an extraction of 90 to 98 per cent, has already been practically demonstrated by the excellent work at the Haile, Franklin and other mines. It is stated that recent experiments at the Russell mine in Montgomery County, N.C., have shown that treatment by the cyanide process will cost from 90 cents to $1 per ton, on a scale of 100 tons per day, with an extraction of 85 to 90 per cent. For such mines as the Silver Hill and the Silver Valley, the complex sulphurets (galena, zing- blende, etc.) must be treated by smelting; and for this purpose copper ores are necessary. Suitable auriferous copper ores do not exist in many of the mines, notably those of Guilford and other counties of middle North Carolina. The establishment of custom sampling works and metallurgical plants, of which not one exists in the South today, and the reopening of mines necessary to supply them, are not unfeasible undertakings, though they may be difficult, and will require capital. But the advantage to the South cannot be overestimated.
Regarding placer mining, more systematic work is necessary. One of the chief difficulties is the fact that the deposits are in many cases below drainage; to overcome this, the more general adoption of the hydraulic elevator is recommended.
The history of gold mining in the South would form a long chapter if it were attempted to give in detail the manifold conditions, the rise and fall of the numerous ventures, which have led to the present neglected state of the industry. Suffice it to say here, that, although no bonanzas can be expected, workable bodies of ore exist, which may form the basis of profitable mining operations, so long as these are confined to legitimate ends, governed by sound and capable business and technical management, and protected from the interference of patent charlatan processes. The treatment of low-grade sulphurets is the ultimate problem in almost every mining camp; and so in the South these must be the main source of its gold production. It is believed that the state of the industry is approaching a healthier condition, and that the preparations now in progress and the growing interest manifested in the development of the resources of the South point to a reasonable revival of gold mining, with an increased production, though it may be many years before it can attain even its former maximum production.

"Nugget found at Sam Christian Mine, Montgomery County, N.C., on Southern Railway. Weight 2 pounds. Picture one-half actual size.

"The Gold Deposits of Georgia"
Condensed from a paper by Prof. W. S. Yeates, State Geologist, Published in "Southern Field" and a paper by Assistant State Geologist S. W. M'Callie, read at Denver Mining Convention July 8, 1897.

Prior to the California gold excitement in 1849, no State in the Union produced as much gold per annum as Georgia, and ever since the war it has headed the list of gold-producing states in the Appalachian gold-belt; but for several reasons the product of Georgia began to decrease about twelve of fifteen years ago, and it has continued to do so until within the past two years, when reaction began. Production in 1896 was $151,000. One of the leading causes which contributed to the decrease in the gold output of Georgia, was that until quite recently no process was known by which the gold-bearing sulphide ores could be saved, and as soon as a miner would come to the sulphides he would almost immediately abandon the vein, however rich it might be. Since the chlorination process of extraction has proved so satisfactory in saving the gold from the refractory ores of this and the adjoining States, these abandoned veins have greatly enhanced in value, for the sulphide ores give much higher assay values than the free-milling ores. Since the reaction began in this States, two years ago, activity has been steadily increasing. Many Western miners have invested in the gold fields. The gold deposits of Georgia belong to the Appalachian gold fields, an auriferous belt extending from Nova Scotia to Alabama. The belt, which consists of highly metamorphic rock of unknown age, varies in width from ten to seventy-five miles. In places, it is made up of several minor belts running parallel with each other and only a few miles apart.
These auriferous areas enter the northeastern corner of Georgia from the Carolinas and run in a southwestern direction to the Alabama State line. The region thus traversed is more or less mountainous, especially in Rabun, Union and Towns counties, where some of the higher peaks attain an altitude of 3,000 or 4,000 feet above sea level. Further to the southwest the country becomes more undulating, the principal topographical features being low, rounded ridges and narrow valleys, with an occasional isolated mountain rising many hundred feet above the surrounding county.
The entire section traversed by the gold belts is well watered and heavily wooded. The streams are frequently rapid and are often of sufficient size to furnish ample water-power for operating stamp-mills and other mining machinery.
The greater part of the gold found occurs in the two, well-defined, so called "Dahlonega" and "Hall County" belts. The former is much more extensive than the latter, and has yielded large quantities of the yellow metal. It takes its name from the Dahlonega, the county- seat of Lumpkin County. This belt first makes its appearance in the western part of Rabun County, where valuable placer deposits have been worked at the Smith and the Moore Girls' mines. These deposits occur along the small streams tributary to the Tallulah River, where they have been worked, off and on, for more than fifty years. Further to the southwest, in White County, the belt increases in width and the mines become more numerous. Both vein and placer mining have been carried on here, more or less extensively, since the first discovery of gold on Duke's Creek, and the total output of these mines has been reckoned at several millions.
As the auriferous belt enters Lumpkin County it gradually increases in richness and the number of its deposits, reaching its greatest development in the vicinity of Dahlonega, where for the last half a century has been the center of the most extensive gold mining operations carried on within the limits of the State. Immediately east of Dahlonega is a long line of high ridges and hills extending many miles to the southwest. These ridges and hills form the axis of the gold belt, and are everywhere covered with the prospector's pits, cuts and tunnels.
Further to the southwest in Dawson county the gold deposits become more or less broken and less continuous; but, in entering Cherokee, they regain their former economic importance and continue with but few breaks to the Royal gold mine, near the Alabama line. The entire length of the Dahlonega belt thus traced is about 150 miles, while its width varies from one to five miles.
 

The Hall County belt, though not so important from an economic point of view as the Dahlonega, has yielded, nevertheless, at various points along its course, considerable quantities of gold. It lies some ten miles east of Dahlonega belt, and runs more of less parallel with it for nearly a hundred miles, stopping short, apparently, in Fulton County, eight or ten miles north of Atlanta.
A third belt, including the Acworth, Villa Rica, and Bonner mines, traverses Cobb, Paulding and Carroll counties. It reaches its greatest development in the neighborhood of Villa Rica, where it has been extensively worked.
Many miles to the southeast, near the limit of the Crystalline area, is another series of mines, which may be grouped, geographically, into a fourth division (appearing to be the southern extension of a well known South Carolina belt), traverses Lincoln, Columbia, McDuffie and Warren counties.
Beyond the limits of the above-named occurrences are to be found numerous isolated localities, where gold is mined in paying quantities. Such deposits are found in Towns, Union, Fannin, Gilmer, Meriwether and other counties in North Georgia. They consist of both vein and placer deposits, and frequently surpass in richness the mines located on the main belts. Besides the deposits of economic extent, there are still others of less importance in nearly every county within the Crystalline area. In fact, it is commonly stated, and can probably be verified, that all the streams of North Georgia, with few exceptions, carry more or less gold.
The individual auriferous belts are generally made up of several veins of ore bodies, running more or less parallel with each other, and conforming in dip and strike to the country rock. They vary in thickness from the fraction of an inch to a number of yards, and can often be followed along their outcropping for considerable distances. One of the most typical veins may be described as a series of ore shoots or chimneys united by quartz stringers. Another commonly met with consists of thin layers of quartz interlaminated with schists, having the general appearance of a stratified deposit. A third, called the "blanket deposit," is made up of numerous lens-shaped layers of quartz, imbedded in schists or gneisses. All these varieties of ore deposits sometimes occur in the same locality, as in the Dahlonega region; but, as a general rule, the deposits of each district are similar or pass gradually from one to the other.
Dahlonega, the county-seat of Lumpkin County, is the most important gold-mining town in Georgia. In 1838 a United States mint was located in Dahlonega, and active operations were continued until the breaking out of the war in 1861. During the twenty-three years in which the mint was operated at Dahlonega $6,106,569 was coined, principally in half eagles and quarter eagles, the greatest amount coined in any single year being $582,782.50, in 1843. It has been estimated that fully as much of the gold mined in Georgia found its way into the markets by other channels as was coined at the mint.
There are now in operation in the county twelve stamp mills, with a total of 240 stamps. In addition to these, a Huntington mill is operated at the Betz mine.
Many of the saprolitic hydromica slates are gold-bearing. All these states carry auriferous quartz veins, varying in size from an eighth of an inch to several feet in width. The ores are free-milling until water-level is reached, many of the veins showing free gold. At water-level the ore changes to auriferous sulphides, usually pyrite (iron sulphide), though galena and chalcopyrite are of frequent occurrence.
White County, which adjoins Lumpkin on the east, in the same belt, is one of the most noted in the State for its rich placer mines. Like Lumpkin, the most of these have been worked over by the old crude methods of placer mining employed about the middle of this century, though considerable virgin material is still left. Before the war, and even sine, these placers produced many handsome nuggets of gold.
There are a number of good mines in Cherokee County, including the famous Franklin or Creighton mine. This mine is between 400 and 500 feet deep. Its ore consists of auriferous pyrite in quartz. Mrs. Franklin, a widow, who first owned the mine, began working it in 1840. After the sulphide ore was reached, her successors, in operating it, hard poor results. When it feel into the hands of the Creighton Mining Company, they equipped the mine with the necessary outfit for the cyanide process of extraction. This was an improvement on the old amalgamation process, but still it was unsatisfactory, as a large amount of the assay value of the ore was not saved; so the company substituted, for the cyanide, the Thies barrel chlorination process, which has given highly satisfactory results.

In Dawson County the Kin Mori mines were opened years ago. In 1883 a supply ditch 33 miles long was constructed, and placer mining was begun. In 1884-'85 a 30-stamp mill was erected and hydraulic ore mining was begun, on the saprolitic slates and vein content, of what is locally known as the Quarles belt. Riffles were used in the flume between the mine and the mill, and considerable of the gold was caught before reaching the mill. Operations of this character were continued till the early part of 1888. During the working of the ore body, about 300,000 cubic yards were worked at an estimated expense of one cent per cubic yard, and about fifty cents per ton for milling. No attempts were made to save the gold from the sulphides, which were allowed to go off with the tailings, and it is highly probably that by far the larger part of the gold was lost in this way. One large vein near the mill, known as the "Big Sulphuret" vein, has yielded, on assay, as high as $23.40 per ton. It is said that one ton of crude sulphides can be concentrated from twenty-five tons of the ore. There is every reason to believe that the addition of a roasting and chlorinating plant will make the mining of this property profitable. Other properties in this vicinity would justify further prospecting.
In Rabun County considerable placer mining was done, in the northeastern part of the county, between 1835 and 1849, with very satisfactory results; but no veins have ever been located in this part of the county.
In Carroll and Haralson Counties great activity has sprung up within the last year at Villa Rica and Tallapoosa, respectively, both of which are on the Birmingham Division of the Southern Railway. At the old Clopton mine, which was purchased last year by a Boston company with a capital of $300,000, work is being carried on. These shafts have been sunk about 200 feet. About a mile from Villa Rica a s tock company is working off the saprolite by hydraulic mining, with the view to exposing a gold-breaking vein which at six feet deep is twenty feet side. Picked samples are said to have assayed as high as $250 a ton.
[In this district systematic prospecting work has been commenced at four properties not before mentioned. These are on lot 193 by Mr. Weimland for a Chicago syndicate; on an adjoining property by Mr. Roach for some of the stockholders of the Ducktown Copper and Sulphur Company, of  Tennessee, and by Mr. Rainey at the old Hart mines for a Wisconsin syndicate. At another point about four miles southerly from the town of villa Rica, a St. Louis syndicate is prospecting on the Cobb farm and milling a limited quantity of material from near the surface, consisting of the decomposed formation and quartz taken from a shaft about 30 feet deep at the head of a trough which has been worked by placer miners years ago. The mill is of a new pattern made in St. Louis and constructed without any device for amalgamating except on a stationary plate. The crushing is done by a series of small hammers which revolve on a horizontal shaft, encased in a casting, the entire machine occupying a space of some six cubic feet. The crushed material drops on a screen, through which the finer pulp passes, while the coarser is discharged as waste. From the screen the finer pulp passes over mercurialized electro plated copper plates, thence to sluice boxes.
Work is being prosecuted at the Mineral Farm mine, the shaft having been carried down about 146 feet. At this point it is proposed to crosscut the ore body, and it is the purpose to install machinery for air drills to run the crosscutting and drifting. This ore is a pyrrohite and iron pyrites, the value of which, either in copper or gold, I am not informed. The walls are apparently an altered eruptive rock and the gangue quartz.
Near Bremen, about 10 miles west from Villa Rica, some shallow prospecting has been done in a formation very similar to that at the Mineral Farm mine. A body of iron pyrites and pyrrhotite has been cut in two or three places, and I am informed some samples assayed as high as 9 per cent copper.--W.M. Brewer.]
In Haralson County the old Camille mine near Tallapoosa, now known as the Royal mine, is being worked with modern machinery and methods by the Royal Mining Company. The ore is both free=milling and refractory. It is said that assay tests show an average value of $17.90 per ton, but that one of the veins, very rich in auriferous pyrite (gold-bearing iron sulphide), assays as high as $158 per ton. The ore body varies in thickness from six to twenty feet or even more. The assays vary from very low to very high. The length of the slope in the mine is 186 feet, drifts 450, depth of shafts 144. In the mill are 40 new 850-pound stamps, with

Challenge feeders ad 12 true vanners, a 5-foot Huntington mill with plates and concentrators. The ore to the mill runs about $6. Other mines are being opened up or prospected in this vicinity.
In the Hall County belt the Currahee mine near Gainesville is the best developed. The ore is white quartz, containing large proportions of auriferous pyrite and galena, though it is said to be of low grade. The ore bodies are so extensive and easy of access that large quantities of it may be handled at comparatively small cost.
On the Dahlonega belt in Forsyth County, properties are rich in sulphides. Five veins cut the Littlefield property, one, at least, being free milling for a depth of thirty-seven feet, as deep as the shafts were sunk. Besides the veins, there is a small placer on the property, which is being worked by tributers.
The part of the Hall County gold belt lying in Gwinnett County, so far as known, is alongside the Southern Railway between Suwannee and Buford. The vein at the Piedmont mine, two miles west of Buford, is a fissure, cutting the slates at a side angle. The ore body consists of compact white quartz, containing varying proportions of pyrite, galena, and free gold. Assays, made for the company, from both average and picked samples, range from $5 to $31 per ton; and it is probably that work was stopped because of the inability of the miner to extract the gold from the sulphides. Considerable free gold in thin leaves is found in the Wilkes mine, Meriwether County. A shaft, thirty feet deep, has been sunk on the vein, which is in decomposed gneiss. It is said that considerable of this decomposed gneiss is gold-bearing.
At the Walker, in McDuffie County, has been mined, with great success, a hard quartz ore, containing free gold and auriferous sulphides, using nothing but a five-stamp mill with copper plates coated with mercury to save the gold, the sulphides going off with the tailings into the river. A chlorination plant, in connection with the mill, would most likely result in saving twice as much gold as is now saved. The mine is about 200 feet deep. The vein of hard white quartz, containing pyrite, chalcopyrite and galena, with now and then free gold, varies from eighteen to thirty-six inches in width, averaging, probably, thirty inches. It strikes northeast and southwest and is almost vertical, dipping slightly to the south-east. This is an illustration of what deep mining may be expected to do, in other parts of the State, when it shall be undertaken. The fact is that in most parts of the State the mining of the soft, decomposed slates, with their included veins, is done at so small an expense that when the hard refractory ores are reached another cut is begun in some other part of the saprolite, rather than go to the expense of putting up a plant for saving the refractory ores, which are invariably richer, ton for ton, than the saprolite.
 

"Gold Mining in Alabama"

By Eugene A. Smith, State Geologist.

The Crystalline schists which carry the gold-bearing rocks of Alabama, occupy a triangular-shaped area of some 4,500 square miles near the eastern border of the State. These schists are the metamorphosed representatives of both sedimentary and igneous rocks, those are the former origin preponderating in the northwestern part of the area, and those of igneous origin making up the great bulk of the rocks of the southeastern part. The auriferous veins are associated in the great majority of cases with altered sedimentary rocks, which are as a rule feebly crystalline slates, formerly considered and designated as talcose slates, although true talcose slates are comparatively rare among our metamorphic rocks. In many places the slates of the kind above named contain a large proportion of disseminated graphite, as in the case at the blue Hill and Gregory Hill mines in Tallapoosa County.
Another class of altered sedimentary rocks is represented by

mica schists and mica gneisses, likewise in nearly all cases carrying a very considerable percentage of graphite.
The gold bearing veins of Alabama show approximate conformity with the wall rocks, and for this reason they have often been described as bedded veins and veins of segregation. The investigations of Prof. Becker in the Southern Appalachians have shown that the structure with which the deposits are conformable is not stratification but schistose cleavage, and this cleavage he also shows to have been produced prior to the movements which opened the fissures, and further, the pressures which opened the vein fissures did not in general coincide in direction with those which had previously produced schistosity. The result of the dislocation was to produce lens-like openings along the main cleavage of the rocks, which were subsequently filled with quartz, forming what he terms lenticular stringers. These stringers are often discontinuous, one dwindling away of disappearing, while its place is taken by another in the foot or hanging wall. In many instances diagonal seams may be seen to connect such imbricating stringers, and where the connection cannot be actually seen it is nevertheless inferred to exist, and the conclusion is reached that all the stringers were once united by cracks sufficiently large to permit the passage of solutions. Such connected groups of veins have been termed by Prof. Becker "linked veins," and the association of small fissures, each bearing a lenticular mass of quartz, he calls a stringer lead.
While the greater part of the Alabama gold deposits corresponds to the stringer lead type, yet there are numerous small cross fissures, some of which are quite rich in gold.
The stringer leads coincide in general with the schistose structure of the country, yet they do not coincide with this structure in detail, and they may therefore be classes as true veins, i.e., in the fillings of pre-existing cavities. Instances are also numerous where the veins are attended with impregnations of the country rock to such a degree that the latter is mined and milled for gold along with the material of the veins themselves.
It has not as yet been possible to discover the connection existing between the ore deposits and the dikes of igneous rock, nor can it be said that a satisfactory explanation of the origin of the gold has yet been reached.
The loose materials which carry the gold in Alabama, as well as in the other Southern States as shown by Prof. Becker, are of two kinds, viz: the ordinary stream gravels and the accumulation of rotten rock in place. To this latter, Prof. Becker proposes the name saprolite as a general term descriptive of thoroughly decomposed, earthy, but untransported rock.
Prior to 1849 a vast amount of work was done in Alabama in numerous localities in Tallapoosa, Chilton, Coosa, Clay, Cleburne and Randolph Counties, in working over the placer deposits and the quartz veins in the decomposed slates. This kind of work was kept up with somewhat less vigor after the breaking out of the California gold fever, until the beginning of the civil war in 1860. Since the war, while stamp mills have been in operation at Pinetucky mine in Randolph County, more of less continuously for twenty-five of thirty years, and fitfully at other points, practically very little has been done in Alabama in the way of the systematic milling of gold quartz until recently, when the success of Capt. Thiess in South Carolina has amply demonstrated the practicability of the profitable extraction of gold from the low-grade ores which so greatly predominate in the Southern Appalachians. The last six or eight years have witnessed a great revival of interest in the gold regions of this section, and the resources of several of the States have been pretty thoroughly investigated. Since 1892 the Alabama Geological Survey has been engaged in the investigation of the gold fields of the State with the result of showing that there are several localities in Tallapoosa, Clay, Cleburne and Randolph Counties where there is a sufficient quantity of low-grade ore to justify the erection of milling plants. Bulletins Nos. 3 and 5 of this survey contain reasonably full descriptions of the main occurrences of gold ores in the State, but special note may here be taken of the following"
Tallapoosa County.-In the Silver Hill district the work has been going on with little interruption for a number of years. The quartz veins are associated with graphitic schists, and the mining and milling can be carried on at very little cost. Further north in the Goldville district, a good deal of work has recently been done in opening up the old Ulrichs property, and a good quantity

of machinery has been placed, with a view to active mining work immediately. At Hog Mountain a large number of heavy views of gold-bearing quartz have been exposed and tested in a systematic manner by Mr. Aldrich. This prospecting work has been going on for several years, and active work in mining and milling will undoubtedly soon begin. This is one of the most promising gold properties of the State.
Clay County.-In the Goldberg district, a milling plant with Cawford mills has recently been erected, but up to date not much work has been done there. In the Idaho district Mr. Joshua Franklin has for more than a year been running with profit a Huntingdon mill, using the low-grade ores of that vicinity. He has in this time fully demonstrated the fact that these low-grade, free-milling ores can be economically treated. Near the Franklin mine, another establishment, under the direction of Dr. Wm. B. Phillips, is making a test on a commercial scale of ores of similar grade to those of Franklin mine. I have very little doubt that the result of these tests will be satisfactory.
Randolph County.-The Pinetucky is the only mine now in active operation in the county. A ten-stamp Fraser and Galmers mill is here used. As above indicated this is one of the oldest mines in the State.
Cleburne County.- At Arbacoochee placer work has been carried on more extensively than in any part of the State, except possibly in the vicinity of Goldville in Tallapoosa County. At the present time very little is being done in either district. The Chattanooga Mining Company is doing some work, and have recently gotten out a number of fine nuggets along with the fine gold. A few years ago an exceedingly rich vein of quartz carrying free gold was exposed in a shallow shaft at Arbacoochee, but litigation has put a stop to further developments there. To the eastward of Arbacoochee, in Tricken Valley, there is also much activity, especially in the line of development. At the Hicks-Wise shaft, at a depth of 150 feet, ore of fairly good grade is still found. The width of the ore body at the surface is about 30 feet.
Up to this date no plant has been introduced into Alabama by which the sulphurets can be utilized, all our works being adapted to the free-milling surface ores alone. Now that the experience of the past three years has shown that we have at several points a sufficient quantity of low-grade ore to justify the erection of mills, it will follow naturally that when the surface ores are exhausted arrangements will me made to turn to account the refractory sulphurets.
To sum up the situation in Alabama, we have amply demonstrated the fact that low-grade ores in sufficient quantity occur at several places within the gold belt. At the Franklin mine, in the Idaho district, an experiment extending over more than a year has shown that these low-grade ores can be worked with profit with a Huntingdon mill and a stamp mill. The experience at the Pinetucky mine, extending over a period of more than twenty years, has been somewhat similar, though the character and mode of occurrence of the ore are quite different from what obtains at the Franklin mine.

"Tennessee Gold"

The gold deposits in Tennessee are not so extensive as in other Southern States, but there are several mines which have been worked off and on, and in which much the same formation is found as in most of the gold-bearing belts in North Carolina. Modern methods of mining would probably show the deposits formerly worked to be sufficiently rich to give a good profit. The United States Geological Survey has the following list of locations in Tennessee counties, which lie on the western slope of the Great Smoky Mountains and on the North Carolina border:
Coca Creek, Monroe County, Whippoorwill Mining Company, gold-bearing quartz vein in semi-talcose clay slate; Coca Creek, Monroe County, in sandstone gravels, worked a little every year; east of Montvale Springs, Blount County; in water of Citico Creek, Monroe County; in bed of Cane Creek, Monroe County; Polk County also; veins of gold-bearing quartz in Ocoee group of slates.

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