State

Роде Two THE STATE October 26, 1935 There’s a Talc Mine In Moore THERE'S a tale mine in Moore County ubout which very lit¬ tle is known. As u matter of fact, 99 per cent of the population of North Caro¬ lina probably don't know that such an enterprise exist*. So perhaps we'd better tell you something about it. The mine and the mill* are located at the small town of Hemp, which is located two miles off the main highway between Carthage and Troy. You turn off about five miles west of Carthage. Tale is a powder which comes from pvropkillitc. And in case you don’t know what pyrophillite is — it’s a stone. A crumbly sort of a stone. There's a large deposit of it near Hemp, and Mr. V. L. Johnson, who is manager of the mine and the mills says that he is sure of at least a million tons that can still be mined. Probably much more than that. Talc stone — we'll call it by that name rather than using the longer one- conies up pretty close to the surface of the ground. We asked Mr. John¬ son how the particular deposit at Hemp had been located and lie said that some men were hunting for gold and accidentally stumbled on it. At the present time the stone is be¬ ing mined 200 feet below the surface of the ground. Naturally, the first thing that had to lie done was to sink a shaft to that level. From the base of the shaft, the men have been tunnel¬ ing along, taking out stone, until they are now approximately 200 feet away from the shaft. The way they oper¬ ate is like this: Blast Out the Stone With compressed air drills they pre¬ pare places for dynamiting the stone. They then touch off the explosives and i he solid stone i* shuttered into thou- sands of little piece*. The stuff is then lifted or shovelled into small cars that run on a narrow-gauge track and are pulled by mules. These cars are hauled to tb- base of the shaft, hooked onto au elevator cable and are lifted to the top of the shaft, which is in the rear of the grinding mill. They are shoved along another track to the grinder, which is about fifty feet away. The grinder smashes the large pieces AND in case you don't know lliiii" about how tale is mined, liaps you'll be able to get some front the facts as set forth in article. It's a very interesting cess. of stone into t id-bits which arc never more than three inches in length and less than that in width. A holt-con¬ veyor takes those morsels to a pulver¬ izing plant in another section of the mill and there they are squashed into powdered form. Two Pulverizing Operations The powder is then blown upward by compressed air and only the real fine stuff reaches an altitude where it can enter another pulverizer. The same process is gone through with a second time, and eventually it comes out as smooth and fine as any talcum powder you've ever seen. Then it i* shovelled into hags, the bags are loaded into freight ears — and away they go to destinations in various parts of the country. It's really a very interesting process We asked Mr. Johnson about the mine it*elf. and he said that the tunnel was braced up bv larce beams so it couldn’t cave in. It's about six feet high and anywhere from five to twelve feet wide. They work three or four mules down there, hauling the ears hark and forth. The mules and the men get down into the mine by means of the ears which arc hooked onto the elevator cable. First off they have a dickens of a time getting the mules to enter the car and take the ride down into the depths of the earth. After a while, though, the THE RAZORBACK filled with топи - commemorate the The world is men Is lo hone. The lion and the unicorn, and the faithful dog, of course. So here is your chance oh! sculp¬ tor with your great artistic knack, To chisel the piney-rooter and the stump where he scratched his back. W. M. Storm. any- * per- idea Shiv animals really enjoy the trip. Particularly do they pro- like the upward journey, because they know that they are through for the day and that hay and oats await them. Mr. Johnson says you ought to sec them clamber into the ears. Over a Score of Miners Twenty to thirty men operate daily underground. They wear rough cloth¬ ing, because it gets mighty dirty down there, and each of them wears the reg¬ ulation miner's cap, with the little lan¬ tern in front of it. That’s how they manage to see what they're doing down there. The blasts of dynamite usually are set off just before the men got ready to quit for the day. That minimizes the danger of their being caught in a cave-in. There has been only one serious accident down there, and that was about eight years ago. A man got killed. The mill and the mines are operated by the Standard Mineral Company. They've been running the place for the last fifteen years. There are a eouple of other talc mills somewhere in Moore County, and there also are one or two units up in Cherokee. The supply in the western part of the state is nowhere as large as it is down in Moore County. Some of the talc goes into the mak¬ ing of talcum powder. Practically all of the stuff which is mined at Hemp, however, is used for an inert filler. Perhaps you're not exactly clear about inert fillers : we weren’t, so wo asked Mr. Johnson about it. Fie ex¬ plained that fillers of various kinds were used in the formula for making roofing, linoleum and a whole lot of other things like that. In making linoleum, red dirt is often used. But suppose that a blue pattern was want¬ ed. The red dirt couldn't be dyed blue, so it would be necessary to find some substance of a neutral (white) color. That’s where the talc comes in. In other words, the use of talc is practically the same as the use of silica, or plain dirt, in fertilizers. It is used as a filler— to see that the formula has the proper ratio. It’s really a very interesting busi¬ ness, and you ought to stop by and look at it some time.