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DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD MINES IX THE SOUTH APPALACHIAN REGION. 73
In the central portion of the county there is a group of mines, most prominent among which is the Whitehall,1 which was in active operation as late as 1884. Other properties in this group are the Kiggins, Johnston, Pullian and Grindstone Hill mines.
Still farther south are the Mitchell and the Goodwin mines. They are located on Pigeon run, along which considerable placer-work was done' in the earlier days. Both have been worked within the past twelve years, but no paying vein was developed.
MINES IN ORANGE COUNTY.
The gold mines of this county are situated in the northeast corner near the Kapidan river. The most prominent one among them is the Yaucluse, which was discovered and opened in 1832. A description of the milling practice at this mine in 1847 is given on p. 34. Other mines in the vicinity are the Orange Grove, Greenwood and Melville.
MINKS IN LOUISA COUNTY.
The gold-bearing rocks traverse the central portion of the county in a southwesterly direction, forming a narrow belt but a few miles in width. In this belt, near the centre of the county, and from 2 to 6 miles northeast of Mineral City (Tolersville), are the Louisa county pyrite mines. These large bodies of sulphurets, occurring in lenses with a maximum thickness of 60 feet, and developed to a depth of over 600 feet, are probably of contemporaneous origin with the gold-veins. They show the same strike (N. 30° E.), dip (60° S.E.) and pitch of shoots or ore lenses (45° iST.E.) as the quartz-veins in the vicinity. Traces of gold are found in the pyrite deposits, and small gold-bearing quartz-veins have been encountered in the mines. We quote from a letter written by Mr. W. H. Adams, manager of the Anninius Pyrite Mines, Mineral City, to whose kindness we are much indebted:
" It is true that in the pyrite vein, as now opened, there are traces of gold and silver, but I do not think the average so high as $1.00 per ton, and have found that gold carries only in certain lines, and that nearly all the vein matter is barren. There are, in all of the properties, easily traceable quartz-veins in the hanging- and foot-slates, which are gold-bearing to the extent of $4.00 to S15.00 per ton, but these veins are always narrow about as you saw them in our No. 3 shaft (3 to 7 inches). The}- are, however, persistent, and I have no doubt that chimneys are to be found at points of contact of the veins and dikes, which chimneys will be found to be the source of much of the gold so prevalent in the streams of the neighborhood."
The scope of this report will not permit a detailed description of these interesting pyrite deposits or the methods of mining and concentration
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1 See Am. Jour. Sci., i, xxxii, 1837, p. 101.
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