VALUABLE STUFF. The mica peeler is holding two sheets of rum
mica. Value of the curious mineral is increased with the size of the sheet
which may he cut from single pieces. Sheets as big as the one on the left
now sell for $16.00 a pound or more. The nation’s military machines
need all they can get.
The Boom In Mica
“We’ve got to have more!” is the
order w hich has come down from
WasSiington: so more than 175
new mines have been opened up
in the last 90 days.
ASIAN who owns a mien mine in
North Carolina these booming
i day* is n fortunate ninn indeed.
The curious shiny stuff is being
turned up nt a record rate — under
government stimulus — and prices
have doubled since the war began,
ranging from 22c to $18 a pound.
More than IT.'i new mines have
1>се»
ojtcned in the last 90 days, and dig¬
gings which had not been worked
since the nlmrigines hacked out mien
for ornamentation arc once more in
production.
Spruce Pine, in Mitchell County, is
the capital of the mica country
where for 10 years 61 per cent of all
Г.
S. mica has been mined. The town
today is seeing more feverish trading,
leasing, and prospecting than it has
seen since World War I.
Mica is a mineral used exclusively
in its original form of compound. It
occurs in blocks, and is peeled by
hand into thin, usually transparent,
8
sheets. Seven grades run from clear to
black, and three-quarters of the pro¬
duction is scrap.
Sheet and “punch” mica (pieces
large enough to punch into small
-beets) is essential in the electrical
industry. Formerly most of it came
from Madagascar. Now 1’iicle Sam’s
new mechanized forces need the sheet
badly — not only in the ignition sys¬
tems of his machines, but as shield
to protect machine parts against des¬
ert sand and jungle dirt. One of its
properties is a resilience which glass
docs not possess, and another is its
ability to withstand extreme heat.
Once it was used for “windows" of
old-fashioned bellying base burners,
and as windows in folding rain cur¬
tains of automobiles and buggies.
Scrap mica is ground into a dust and
used in the manufacture of rubber,
paint, wall paper and insulation.
In 19-10, North Carolina produced
a million pounds of sheet ami punch
mica, and the War Production Board
has ordered production increased to
.‘5.000, (H)0 pounds for the current
(1942) year. Dr. J. I>. Stuckey, N. C.
State Geologist, isn’t sure yet that the
goal will bo reached, but he says a lot
of mica is coming out.
The military interest in mica has
revolutionized methods in the indus¬
try. Mica occurs in erratic veins,
with the vein suddenly jumping out
of line, or petering out without warn¬
ing. Consequently, with a few excep¬
tions. most mining has been done on
a modest and cautious scale, and
mine-owners were reluctant to invest
money in machinery sufficient for
large-scale production. A lot of
“shirt-tail” mining has been carried
on for generations, and it was not in¬
frequent for a farmer to mine a bit
of mica in his backyard during the
winter season. When his shaft reached
the water line, he often would abandon
the enterprise entirely.
Faced with this harum-scarum
technique, the government organized
the Colonial Mica Company, a non¬
profit subsidiary of the Metals Re¬
serve Corporation, itself a federal
agency. A special priorities office un¬
der Sam Silver was set up in Ra¬
leigh to provide quick assistance to
miners seeking machinery. The Colo¬
nial Company brought compressors,
drills, pumps and hoists to the field
and rented the equipment to miners at
the rate of 2 per cent per month of
the value of the equipment.
The company also has brought in
its own buyers and graders and ships
from its own warehouse nt Asheville.
As a consequence of this urging,
many a shaft which never knew any¬
thing beyond pick and shovel is feel¬
ing the bite of modern drills, as
Uncle Sain assumes the risk of frivo¬
lous veins. Several mines declared
sterile for decades arc open and old
veins have been picked up once more.
And mica in unheard of quantities
is rolling toward plane, truck and
tank factories, and many other arse¬
nals.
The little boom has produced a
ciop of success stories, too. W. T.
Foster, for instance, a veteran miner,
recalled that once there was a freak
mica mine in Lincoln County, far
from the usual outcroppings. He
searched through ancient geological
records in Raleigh and found a report
which located the mine, near Ixmg-
dnle, N. C. He bought tho property,
and today is mining a ton and a half
of mica a day, using simple tools and
three laborers. The vein, of high-
grade rum mica, is one of the richest
in the state.
The search for strategic materials
