JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY 



VOLUME XXX JUNE. 1914 No. 1 



THE OCCUERENCE AND UTILIZATION OF CERTAIN 



MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE SOUTHERN 



STATES* 



BY JOSEPH HYDE PRATT 



There are many minerals being mined in the Southern States, 

 the individual production of which is comparatively small, but 

 whose total production is several millions of dollars. The min- 

 erals of this group with which this paper briefly deals are: 

 Gold and silver, graphite, talc (soapstone), barytes, chromite, 

 corundum, rutile, and a group of minerals that are directly as- 

 sociated with pegmatite, as mica, feldspar, kaolin, quartz, beryl, 

 uranium minerals, monazite, zircon, gadolinite, samarskite, 

 and cassiterite. 



There are a number of the nonmetallic minerals that have 

 played an important part in the commercial history of the 

 South, and certain of the Southern States now have such a repu- 

 tation that if a commercial demand arises for a certain mineral 

 that has formerly been considered rare in its occurrence, pros- 

 pecting is at once begTin for it in certain of these States. 



Among the minerals that were at one time considered rather 

 rare in their occurrence, but upon a demand arising for them in 

 the arts have been found in commercial quantity in one or more 

 of the Southern States are: Corundum, monazite, zircon, 

 gadolinite, and bauxite. There are several more of the non- 

 metallic minerals that are closely connected with the economic 

 history of the South, principally mica, salt, and sulphur, but 

 only the first one will be considered in this paper. 



* Paper read before. Section E, Geology and Mineralogy of the American As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science, at the Annual Meeting held In At- 

 lanta, December, 1013. 



