Boom &
Death
ШщшШаьъ
Ш
'3S-~W • 1
'Л'|
’ >***'
‘■ф,
.j -
Ш?-:
- ■ ' : -
'Ж
North Carolina spodumcnc is piled up. It may go into the ll-homb. Below,
Mary Poovey Reis her mail al Indian Creek, but soon Ihe postman will not
slop al Indian Creek. Bulldozer in background is ready to start knocking down
Ihe houses. — (Photos by Jeep Hunter.)
Oar vast spoiluineiie de-
posils are to be mined,
but Indian Creek «lies.
By JULIAN SCIUJ Jt
Indian Creek is a mill village for¬
gotten
Ы
time and mapmakers. It is
about to die, for the rumblings of a
new era will soon snuff out its births,
its deaths, its slow, seentingly-Iifeless
existence.
This cluttered, disordered array of
company houses, yellow and shabby,
has meant life to only a few score of
people in Lincoln County but even its
flimsy lifeline will be but a sweat-
covered memory by next year this time.
By May 15. 1955 the community
will be a gaping hole in the earth and
will stand as a symbol of the mighty
impact of the hydrogen age upon the
lives of the people of Piedmont North
Carolina. Each day giant bulldozers
inch closer to its boundaries, push¬
ing from the face of the earth a new
lifeblood — lithium.
The town is the first to go. There
will be others as men and machines
burrow into the earth seeking ores.
Farms are disappearing and rolling
fields of grain and corn border ugly
pockmarks in the face of the land and
yellow machines, like giant caterpil¬
lars. rumble across the countryside.
Indian Creek never grew larger than
the cotton mill there and you would
have a hard time finding it on a road
map. Yet it is a warm, happy place
to the people who have toiled there.
They hate to leave as farmers and
merchants and other mill workers will
hate to leave the area in the future.
But while a few will be inconven¬
ienced. others will enjoy new prosper¬
ity, for that is the real story of Lin¬
coln and Gaston counties and its rich
deposits.
Lithium first attracted widespread
attention last year when it was an¬
nounced the mineral was critical in the
building of hydrogen bombs. Before
that it was merely a symbol on high
school chemistry charts to most peo¬
ple.
Geological surveys conducted by
THE STATE. SCFTEMBCP 11, 1954
the state have pointed out for years
that there are at least 128 deposits
in the Kings Mountain-Bcsscmcr City
area. But there was no great demand
for lithium.
Now there is a "boom" and Pied¬
mont North Carolina may become the
world's leading producer of lithium¬
bearing ores and products using
lithium.
Lithium docs not appear in true
form. It is mined front other ores.
Spoduntene is one of the best lithium¬
bearing ores and that is what they are
taking out of the soil in the area.
With lithium, one firm is producing
25 products, ranging from cold tablets
to greases. It is vital in the ceramics in¬
dustry, in welding, in air conditioning.
Ten years ago the Lithium Corp. of
America started shipping ore front the
Kings Mountain-Bcssemer City area to
its plant in Minnesota. Now Lithium,
Foote Mineral and others plan facili¬
ties for processing at the site of the
mines.
Lithium Corp. is putting $7,000.0(4)
in its installation at Bessemer City
which includes open pit and shaft
mines. Southeastern Construction of
Charlotte is building a plant which will
measure 150 x 500 feet. Foote has a
small processing plant in operation and
is sinking $2.000,000 into its expan¬
sion. By January of next year Lithium
Corp. hopes to be under way and may
process as much as 700 tons a day.
A portion of this output will go into
the production of the H-bomb.
In the mad scramble for mineral
rights, property costs have gone up in
the area and utility firms show great
increases in output. Its effect on the
economy cannot be measured pres¬
ently, but it is likely that firms pro¬
ducing products using lithium will also
move southward to be near the heart
of the world's lithium belt.
The Piedmont will produce, it is
estimated, more lithium (spoduntene)
than any section in the world. The belt
runs in a 15-ntile swipe from Newton
south to the South Carolina line, with
cities like Lincolnton. Chcrryvillc, Gas¬
tonia and Shelby on its border.
Meanwhile, the people of Indian
Creek arc planning to move. There will
be other towns like it as the world
watches the new lithium center of the
universe.
15
