USA > Alabama > Memorial record of Alabama. A concise account of the state's political, military, professional and industrial progress, together with the personal memoirs of many of its people. Volume I > Part 29
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
is eight feet thick. Deeper down, the quartz will consolidate, in all probability, into a regular vein. Garnets and peroxide of iron occur, but all mixed confusedly with the slate. The present company have driven two good adits, one of which is four hundred feet in length, which, by draining a large amount of untouched ore, will enable them to work the contents of the mine for a long time, without any additional expense of consequence for drainage. The gold is said to be worth ninety- five cents per penny weight On the tributaries of the creek, a great amount of gravel has been washed, in years past, for gold, and with much success, but these works have been abandoned years since." Dr. Phillips confirms the foregoing statement with regard to Silver hill, and finds sufficient evidence of the "wasteful and unscientific methods" pursued by the early miners. He is confident that there is still good silver ore at Silver hill, and proves it by assays of three samples "taken at random from some old dumps." "The first sample was bluish crystalline quartz. carrying pyrite, which assayed, gold 4 9-10 ounces per ton; silver 3 7-10 ounces per ton-valued at $104,98 per ton. The second sample was yellowish, sugary quartz, which assayed gold 4-10 ounce, silver 3-10 ounce per ton-value, $8.50. The third sample, light and sugary quartz, gave only traces of gold and silver. The first assay represented the ore found in the bottom of a shaft of eight feet. The vein was described by Mr. Worthington, who worked it, as being about five feet in width and as carrying a good deal of sulphuret." At the time of Dr. Phillips' visit (August, 1891) this shaft was filled with water.
Dr. Phillips, in his "Preliminary Report," publishes some interesting letters from Major C. H. Parmalee of New York, which furnish infor- mation worth considering here. In a letter dated September 1, 1891, he says that many years ago he had some assays made of Silver hill ores, the lowest of which showed a value of $15 and the highest of $500 per ton. Some Cincinnati parties, several years afterward, had as- says made of the Silver hill sulphuret ores, of which the average was thirty dollars per ton. At Gregory hill-two miles north of Silver hill- Major Parmalee says that, in about 1861, he worked about 1,200 tons of ore without any care in selection, which averaged $1.75 per ton. The screens used were very coarse, and he says their knowledge of the busi- ness was very slight. "I think," he continues, "that Gregory hill would average, without selection, $2.00 per ton, and at a cost of fifty cents per ton; ample water can be obtained for twenty stamps, say sixty tons, per day. I think it would be safe to call the Silver hill refractory ores $25. I once got fourteen dollars free gold per ton from eight tons of ref- use Silver hill ore. The ore was partially decomposed by weather exposure, say for twenty years." In a subsequent letter, dated October 2, 1891, Major Parmalee writes Dr. Phillips as follows: "You are probably not aware that there is a shaft sunk about ninety feet down square on to the sulphuret vein-at least thirty feet or more below any of the old
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works. It was in this shaft that Prof. Emmons examined the vein. It has been sunk about twenty feet deeper since that time. There is also another shaft in the same vein about 150 feet west of this, which can be cleaned out. The ore from these shafts will assay from fifteen to fifty dollars. The vein, so far as stripped, averaged from eigh- teen to twenty-four inches." Mr. Parmalee, Dr. Phillips states, has a fifteen stamp mill at work at Gregory hill, where the ore is rapidly treated. The water supply is not sufficient to operate more than twenty stamps, but the doctor thinks there is sufficient ore in sight to warrant much more extensive works which, with good management, would yield a handsome profit.
Blue hill, in the same section, shows similar characteristics to Greg- ory hill. At the latter place, the explorer says, "it is almost impossible to take a pan from any place on top of the hill, where the ore has been mined, without getting free gold; the surface yields good panning and when one takes the ore itself extraordinary results are obtained." He says that he has never seen better panning anywhere than from this locality. The chief drawback to mining in both localities is the absence of sufficient water. Blue creek-a bold stream of water which could be tapped within a distance of one mile-would afford an ample supply, but that water can only be made available by the use of powerful pumping machinery, which would of course be expensive. At Long branch, about one mile south of Silver hill, a good deal of successful work has been done, and also at Owl hollow, in the same vicinity. The former place, ac- cording to reports, yielded much gold about forty or fifty years ago. The Morgan mine, on the Talapoosa river, not far from Dudleyville, says Tou- mey's report (1858) "is a deposit mine, composed of a thick bed of coarse gravel. The mine was just opened at the time of my visit and was attract- ing much attention." The southwestern corner of Talapoosa county, Dr. Phillips tells us, "is the southern limit of the gold region of the state." Chambers county he also places in the Lower gold belt, but so far as known no attempts at mining have been made in the county. Heavy quartz seems to abound as far south as Lafayette, but these have not been ex- amined. Dr. Phillips thinks the outlook is better in the Upper than in the Lower belt, particularly in the vicinity of Arbacochee, where placer mining has been carried on for fifty years, and at Bell's mills, Idaho, Ex- tension mine, Pinetucky (where a ten stamp mill is now at work) and other localities in Cleburne, Randolph, Talladega and Clay counties. Gold has been profitably worked at the Riddle's Hold mine, Talladega county. In much of the quartz mined here, gold was plainly visible to the eye, and the numerous assays from various depths, as well as the testimony of those who have worked the mine, show, in the judgment of Dr. Smith, that the mining can be carried on here with profit. Gold, he says, has been mined also northeast and southwest of the Riddle mine, in the same belt, but with no other appliances than a pick and pan.
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
In concluding this review of the gold and silver mines of Alabama, the language of Prof. Toumey in his report, published more than thirty years ago, seems as applicable to-day as when the words were penned by that far-sighted and enlightened scientist: "It is impossible," he says, "to point out all the occurrences of deposit gold in Alabama, and it is almost as difficult to ascertain all the localities at which it might be profitably worked. * Future discoveries will probably develop more than it. is possible to show at present." The fact that, after so long an interval, gold and silver are now being mined in the state; that the precious metals exist, in considerable quantities, in a large area; that enterprise and cap- ital are preparing to seek for them diligently, aided by the improved ap- pliances of modern times, and the further fact that the statements herein given will be new and interesting to many people, will excuse, if apology were necessary, the time and space devoted to this part of the subject of "Mines and Mining in Alabama."
COPPER.
Copper has been found in Marshall, Talladega, Cleburne, Clay, Coosa. and Chilton counties, but few attempts have been made at mining this metal, as it was not found in sufficient quantities or in favorable locali- ties for renumerative work. Professor Eugene A. Smith, the state geolo- gist in his official report of 1875, gives an interesting account of the operations at Wood's copper mine, which was then attracting much at- tention. This mine is located in Cleburne county. The vein is described as a "bedded lode, with the richer black sulphuretted ores (commonly called black oxide) lying between the gossan above and the mundic. or solid pyrites below." Up to that time only about 150 yards of the vein had been mined and only the richer ores had been raised. There had been no exploration of the vein by which the thickness of the cupri- ferous pyrites under the black ore or its depth had been ascertained. It had been cut to a depth of twenty feet and a width of ten feet through the solid mass, without reaching the limit of the vein in any direction, from which Dr. Smith concludes that the probable amount of these pyrites-averaging 9 per cent. of copper, was very large. At that time (1875) one calciner had been erected with a capacity of 6,000 pounds of ore in twenty-four hours; one reverberatory, with a capacity of 1,200 pounds of calcined ore in twenty-four hours; and a crushing mill of four stamps, having an engine of thirty horse-power. The product of these works up to October 15, 1875, was about 1,500 tons of ore (shipped), averaging 15 per cent. of copper. Dr. Smith found an amount of ore lying about the shafts, and the refuse of the previous shipments, which he estimated at 800 tons. All of this ore, he thought, would do for smelt- ting and would yield an average of 8 to 10 per cent. of refined copper.
Professor W. C. Stubbs, then of the Agricultural and Mechanical col- lege, by request, made several analyses of the best specimens of the ore from Wood's mine. Nearly all of these ores, Professor Stubbs says,
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consisted chiefly of iron, copper, sulphur and insoluble matter, and there- from a general method of analyses was adopted by which only these substances were determined. No specimen, he says, was homogeneous in structure, many compounds of copper being found in the same speci- men. The results of five analyses were given, showing copper as follows: No. 1, 10.62; No. 2, 34.95; No. 3, 19.24; No. 4, 43.04; No. 5, 45.24. Analy- sis No. 1 showed iron 23.10, sulphur 29.20 and insoluble matter 4.00. The percentage of copper in specimens Nos. 1 and 3 was small, while in Nos. 4 and 5-the black ore and cuprite-much more copper was shown. The specimen No. 2 represented the solid ore of the vein, which aver- aged about 10 per cent. copper.
North and northwest of Wood's mine numerous excavations have been made in the search for copper. One mile distant is a shaft sunk by ex- Governor W. H. Smith, from which very good specimens cf yellow sul- phide were extracted. The state geologist thinks that paying ore would be found in some of the localities where it was so diligently sought. Within three or four miles of Gov. Smith's shaft several trial shafts were put down, but the result was not cheering. On these undertakings Dr. Smith says: "A company with limited means, or an individual sinks an expensive shaft through the hard rocks down to the water; by this time the means are so nearly exhausted that a suitable pump for draining the mine cannot be purchased, and so the enterprise is abandoned, to be renewed at some other locality with similar result. The number of shafts in this vicinity sunk to the water is truly wonderful. If a tithe of the money spent upon such useless shafting had been employed in the purchase of a diamond drill, by which the supposed copper veins could be thoroughly tested before the heavy expense of shafting had been com- menced, many sore disappointments and heavy losses would have been spared."
Notwithstanding the encouraging prospects for profitable work at Wood's mine, as recited in the foregoing pages, the project has finally been abandoned and with it the probability of any further attempts at copper mining in Alabama for many years to come. A recent letter from Dr. Eugene A. Smith, the state geologist, in reply to inquiries made by this writer, states, that "at Wood's mine the first ore obtained was rich in copper." After the richer ore was exhausted, they put up some works for concentrating the ore so that it should average 33 per cent. copper, and shipped that to Baltimore for a while, but when the main body of the ore was reached, it cost too much to concentrate and the work was stop- ped. The probability of a resumption of the work, Dr. Smith thinks, will depend upon the erection of other works, to be used in connection with the mine, to utilize the by-products. If, for example, a manufactory of sulphuric acid was established near the mines and a fertilizer factory to use the acid was run in connection with it, the great waste of sulphur would be prevented and be converted instead into a valuable marketable
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
product. Another disadvantage to the working of Wood's mine was the long wagon haul to railroad or water transportation. The nearest point to such facilities was Carrollton, Ga., a distance of over thirty miles. When the lines of railway shall pass through that region we may expect to see these mines worked on an extensive scale and with a reasonable profit. No mines of copper are at present being worked in Alabama.
LEAD.
The only attempt to work the lead mines in the state was made by the Confederate government during the war. They undertook to utilize the lead deposits in Calhoun county, but found the ore was too much diffused through the lime rock to be secured, except at a cost which ren- dered the attempt impracticable. If, with the appliances at the command of the Confederate government, stimulated by their urgent need of the metal for war purposes, they could not profitably extract the lead from the lime rock in which it was imbedded, it is not likely that any attempt of the kind will be renewed, at least until the price of lead is materially enhanced.
TIN.
One of the most important of mineral discoveries in Alabama has been that of tin, recently made by Dr. Smith and subsequently verified by Dr. W. B. Phillips, then assisting in the geological survey. These mines are found in Coosa county. Some excavations for tin were made on land of Mr. William Gesner, lying in the southwestern part of section 24, township 22, range 16 east, from which ore was obtained yielding 3.50 per cent. of tin. The ore, says Dr. Phillips, is close grained, much disturbed quartz veinlets, bound in hydro-mica talcoid schist. Tin was first discovered in Alabama near Rockford, Coosa county, by Dr. Eugene A. Smith, about the year 1880. In 1884, Hon. John S. Bentley, for a long time probate judge in Coosa county, sent a box of minerals from that county to Dr. Charles Shepard, Sr., in which were some crystals which he thought were cassiterite. Dr. Shepard, in his reply, advised him to "look for tin." The matter was mentioned in the American Journal of Science for 1884, but there it rested until the visit of Dr. Phillips to the locality in 1891-when he picked up "from the surface of the ground nearly two pounds of cassiterite, the oxide of tin-some of the crystals measuring half an inch across the face and exhibiting an excellent crystallization." Dr. Phillips calls these "pure crystals," for the reason that he sent a sample of them to an eminent New York firm for analysis and received a report from the firm showing that the crystals contained 78.19 per cent. of tin, "theory requiring 78.68." "Investigations are now being con- ducted," says Dr. Phillips, 1892, "in this locality and it is hoped that before long some interesting results will be reached." Certainly with crystals of such purity, should they be found in sufficient quantity, Ala -.
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bama will soon add another important and remunerative metal to her full list of mineral treasures and mining industries.
IRON.
We now come to the consideration of the mineral which, within the last few years, has done more than any other, except, perhaps, coal, to make Alabama famous, and given such remarkable prosperity to the mineral region of the state. While ore has been found, as has been stated, in nearly all portions of the state, it is in the territory called the mineral belt, that it is found in surpassing richness and abundance, hav- ing in close proximity the essentials of coal and limestone in inexhausti- ble supply. These wonderful facilities, given by nature to this favored region, have already enabled the furnaces of Alabama to turn out mar- ketable iron at less cost than it has been produced in any other state in the union.
The iron ores of Alabama are divided, by Dr. Smith, the state geolo- gist. into three general classes: metamorphic, silurian and carboniferous. The metamorphic ores he sub-divides as follows: Magnetite, titaniferous magnetite, hematite, menaccanite, limonite and pyrite. The magnetite has been found in Coosa, Clay, Randolph and Cleburne counties, but not in any considerable qauntites. An analysis of this ore shows but little phosphorus. The titaniferous magnetite has been found in several local- ities in Chambers county, notably near Fredonia. Very fine specimens of hematite have been found in Coosa, Clay, Tallopoosa and other coun- ties. He says that in one locality in Clay county ore of this kind was largely used years ago in a catalan forge. The pyrite occurs in large quantities in Clay, Coosa and other counties in the metamorphic region, some of it nearly pure; some cupriferous, containing from 10 to 12 per cent. of copper. The menacconite is found in Coosa and Clay counties; in the latter county in rounded fragments of considerable size. The limonites are much more abundant than any of the above mentioned ores, and Dr. Smith considers them the results of decomposition of beds of pyrites. He thinks that when they become more accessible these pyriteous deposits may become valuable material for the manufacture of sulphuric acid. An analysis of granular magnetite made by Dr. J. W. Mallett, of the university of Virgina, showed 65.36 metallic iron. An analysis of porous limonite, brown and reddish colors, by Dr. Eugene A. Smith, gave 61.71 metallic iron. Dr. Smith classifies with the silurian ores "a great mass of semi-metamorphic slates and a conglomerate, which, together, make a bold mountain range forming the eastern bound- ary of the Coosa valley and the western of the metamorphic region," to which reference has just been made. These slates and conglomerate he considers as the base of the silurian system of Alabama. He finds, next above these, a series of "heavy bedded sandstones with shales," the sandstones having small cylindrical impressions (called scolithus rods) *
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and "occurring in mountainous masses which rise up abruptly from the plain, sometimes to the height of 2,500 feet, and forming an interrupted range approximately parallel with the preceding and distant from it, toward the west, some ten or fifteen miles." With this sandstone are assocated "siliceous and argillaceous shales of considerable thickness." The state geologist reports that the iron ores which occur in the silu- rian formation are essentially of two varieties, the brown hematites and the fossiliferous or linticular red hematite. The other varieties are either specular iron or magnetite. He further says: "In the ore depos- its of this formation in Alabama, it is difficult, if not impossible, to dis- cover anything like stratification in the masses of ore, and it is almost equally difficult to trace any connection between the distribution of the ore banks and the various strata of the formation with which they are associated, beyond the fact that they follow, in general, the outcrop of the dolomite, sometimes over one series of beds in this formation and sometimes over another." "The ores in the eastern part of the Coosa valley," continues Dr. Smith, "are least favorably situated with referene to the coal supply, and most of the furnaces use charcoal furnished by the long leaf pine forests of this valley. In the narrow anticlinal valleys to the northwest of the Coosa valley the ore is always within five or six miles of productive coal measures, with no serious topographical obstruc- tions intervening." Birmingham is in the center of this famed district, and the circumstance mentioned explains the exceptional advantages it has in the production of iron.
The analysis of fifteen specimens of silurian ores given in Smith's treatise on the "Iron Ores of Alabama," show metallic iron varying from 47.69 to 60. These samples were from the Coosa valley. Similar analy- sis of nine specimens of the same class of ore, taken from Cahaba valley, showed metallic iron ranging from 50.07 in the specimen taken from near Pratt's ferry, Bibb county, which was the lowest, to 61.27-a speci- men of pipe ore from the same county. The highest value of seven speci- mens taken from Roup's valley showed by an analysis 40.27, 50.68, 52.55, 58.75, 59.00, and 59.15 metallic iron respectively. "The carboniferous ores have many points of resemblance," says Dr. Smith, "to the dolmites of which the silurian ores are chiefly made up." Both formations are widely distributed. "The chert of the sub-carboniferous is bedded, while that of the dolmite is secretionary. The ore of the sub-carboniferous is limo- nite and closely resembles that of the dolomite in its mode of occurrence and in the general appearance of the ore masses, which are embedded in red sandy clays, and associated with fragments of the broken down chert beds of the formation." The quality of the ores are considered about the same, except that the sub-caboniferous is in some localites rather more siliceous. The carboniferous ores are found largely in the valley of the Tennessee, which is based upon the siliceous limestones of this formation, particularly in Franklin county, where the ore was freely used
,
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in catalan forges before the war. The furnacees recently built at Flor- ence and Sheffield expected to draw largely upon these banks for their supply of ore. The red ore ridges in the anticlinal valleys are made up, according to the state geologist, of the rocks of three formations, the Clinton, the black shale and the flinty or cherty divisions of the sub-car- boniferous. The sub-carboniferous ore of the anticlinals in the Tennessee valley, he thinks, is usually too siliceouus and contains too high a per- centage of phosphorus to be profitably used in furnaces. Two ores are found in the coal measures, "clay ironstone" and "black band." The former is abundant in Jefferson, Walker and Fayette counties, but although Dr. Smith considers it of good quality, it has not yet been used. He thinks, however, that as the Alabama coal fields become better known and are more thoroughly worked, these ores will become of commercial im- portance. Seams of black band occur at New Castle and Warrior stations on the South & North Alabama railroad, but have only been worked on a small scale.
An analysis of these samples of limonites of sub-carboniferous ore, found in north Alabama, resulted as follows: Metallic iron, No. 1-56.45; No. 2-59.29; No. 3-58.46. Specimen No. 1 had no trace of lime, mag- nesia or sulphur, and only slight traces of alumina, and oxide manganese. It had combined water 12.27; siliceous matter 5.58; ferric oxide 80.65. Specimen No. 2 had less siliceous matter and combined water, but had 84.70 ferric oxide and traces of all the other elements mentioned. The analysis of the third specimen does not vary much from that last men- tioned. An analysis of the best specimen taken from carbonates of the coal measures in the Warrior field was as follows:
Specific gravity
3.50
Water and volatile matter.
1.17
Siliceous matter
6.37
Ferric oxide. 0.43
Ferrious carbonate 86.85
Calcium carbonate 2.12
Magnesium carbonate
0.12
Manganous carbonate
3.04
Alumina
0.06
Phosphorus.
Sulphur.
Metallic iron 42.23
The above specimen was a reddish-brown cellular mass, taken from Bluff creek, Limestone county; the analyst was Dr. J. W. Mallet.
Dr. Smith says, that the formation of Alabama later than the carbonif- erous are not "in general iron ore bearings; but accumulations of iron ore have been observed in several localities which have been actually utilized, or which, from their great extent, may possibly come into use hereafter." The Tuscaloosa formation consists of a great series of beds embracing sands, pebbles and clays, underlying the "lowest of the strata
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
heretofore classed as cretaceous," some of which are strongly ferruginous,. in many places holding very considerable deposits of brown hematite. These occur in Autauga, Bibb, Tuscaloosa, Lamar, Marion and other counties, extending to the northwestern portion of the state. Near Ver- non, in Lamar county, is an ore bank which formerly supplied a furnace. In this bank occur specimens showing twigs, small pieces of wood and other vegetable matters converted into limonite, thus evidencing how the ore is formed. Near Tuscaloosa and elsewhere ores are found "which are in some degree intermediate in composition between the red and brown ores." The iron of this formation is widely diffused, and in many places. the "ferruginous matters constitute good beds of yellow and red ochre." A specimen of brown ore found near Tuscaloosa and analyzed by Dr. Eugene A. Smith showed combined water 12.09; siliceous matter 9.23; ferric oxide 66.68; phosphorus 0.53; metallic iron 48.28. Large deposits of brown ore, some of it good needle ore, or of fibrous texture, are found below Fort Deposit in Limestone county; near Eufaula, in Barbour county; in the northern part of Pike county, and in the southern edge of Montgomery county.
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