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loo North Carolina and its Resources.
During the past few j^ears a considerable amount of prospecting
has been done in the counties west of the Blue Ridge, especially in
Jackson, Macon and Clay, and several new mines are being opened up
at the present time. A few miles north of Franklin, on Cowee creek,
hydraulic mining in search for gem corundum has been carried on
during i895-'96, on a considerable scale.
Mica mining in North Carolina has been carried on to a greater
or less extent during the past twenty-five years, mainly in the coun-ties
west of the Blue Ridge. The majority of the mines are located
in Mitchell, Yancey, Jackson and Macon counties. During the past
few years the low tariff rate has permitted the importation of large
quantities of mica from India, and this has had a tendency to decrease
the North Carolina product, but the yield of these mines during the
past year (1895) has approximated 36,000 pounds cut mica. Since
1 891, the industry has received something of a stimulus by the intro-duction
of the mica mill for the grinding of scrap mica, which prior
to that date had been regarded as waste product; the quantity of
ground mica produced has increased considerably since that time.
The mica occurs usually in the form of large irregular crystals
from one to three feet in length, and from a few inches to nearly two
feet in diameter at its greatest width; these crystals are usually
bedded in a matrix of quartz and feldspar in large irregular veins from
a few inches to many feet in width, and sometimes traceable along the
surface of the ground for a half mile or more. Generally in these
veins, the quartz and feldspar predominate, and sometimes very little
mica is present. In places, however, the crystals of mica occur in
abundance, sometimes near the foot-wall, again near the hanging-wall
and sometimes scattered irregularly through the central portion of
the vein. The wall rock for these veins is usually either biotite mica
schists or schistose gneiss.
Probably the total value of the mica product in North Carolina
since the beginning of the industry (1868) has not been much short of
$3,000,000-00, of which the mines of Mitchell and Yancey counties
have contributed by far the larger part, and nearly all the remainder
has been produced in Jackson and Macon
TALC AND AGALMATOLITE.
The mining of talc is confined largely to Swain and Cherokee
counties. The principal deposits which have been worked in the last
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