!N\"\Y. It varies from 12 inches to 3 feet in thickness. The oreshoot, which is 300 feet long and pitches to the northeast, has been worked out from the 100 to the 425-foot level. The shaft was sunk to 485 feet on the dip of the vein, but not drifted from. The vein in the shaft averages 30 inches; but the rich pay-streak, lying on the hanging wall, is only from 2 to 3 inches thick. It is believed, however, that if the vein were drifted on at the 425-foot level the 300-foot oreshoot just referred to would be reached again. Another ore-shoot, the Big Sulphur, is situated 300 feet southwest of the above, and has been worked to the 180-foot level. The ore in the bottom of this shaft (the pump shaft, 213 feet deep) is stated to be 14 inches thick.
Captain Thies's work was confined to the 300-foot shoot. The ore was quartz, carrying 3 to 60 per cent, of sulphurets (pyrite, clialcopyrite and traces of galena). Barite and calcite occur in the gangue. The cost of mining was $4 per ton. Assays show from 1-| per cent, to 3 per cent, of copper. The mill yield was $10 per ton, besides which the sulphurets contained $7.50. The concentrates ran $30. Chlorination was first introduced here in 1880. This was the Mears process, later developed into the Thies process. A full description of this, with costs of working at the Phoenix mine, has been given in a paper by Dr. William B. Phillips.1
The mill and chlorination plants are now dismantled.
The Barrier, Furness, and Gibb mines adjoin the Phoenix. The Faggart is 3 miles to the northeast, and the Barnhardt is 1-J miles east of the Faggart.
The Tucker (or California) mine is 1 mile south of the Phoenix. It was last worked in 1884, by a shaft 175 feet deep, and levels 117 feet in total length. The quartz-vein was 15 inches wide, and showed values of $15 per ton. In 1882 the Plattner chlorination process was introduced here; but this was later superseded by the Mears process.
The Quaker City mine, which is 3 miles north of the Tucker, has not been worked for the past ten years. There are three shafts on the property, the deepest one being 80 feet. The vein is stated to be from 2 to 5 feet wide.
The Pioneer Mills group of mines is situated 13 miles south of Concord, i^o work has been done here since the war. The granite is accompanied by large masses of basic eruptive rocks.
MINES IN UNION COUNTY.
The mines are situated in the metamorphic slates in the western part of the county. Among the more important may be mentioned the
1,1 The Chlorination of Low-grade Auriferous Sulphides," Tram, Am, Inst, Mln. Engs,, xvti, pp. 313-322.
