1914] Certain Mineral Resources 7 



son, Bartow County, and the product mined is used as a colorer 

 in the fertilizer trade. The material is not cleaned in any way, 

 being simply pulverized so that 60 per cent of it will pass 

 through a 24-mesh screen and all through an 8-mesh screen. The 

 value of this material is, of course, very low, and in the total 

 production of graphite in the United States it has increased the 

 tonnage material without adding very largely to the value. 



The graphite produced in Alabama is the crystalline variety. 

 As described by Mr. E. S. Bastin:^ '^ The graphite is widely 

 distributed among the metamorphic rocks of Alabama, in which 

 it occurs in two forms: (1) In the feebly crystalline schists 

 which have been called the Talladega slates, and which in part 

 at least are Paleozoic sediments of as late age as the "Coal 

 Measures," graphite is often found as a black graphite clay free 

 from grit. In this condition the graphite is difficult to separate 

 from the other matter with which it is mixed and the material 

 has not as yet been utilized commercially to any important 

 extent. Examples of this mode of occurrence may be seen near 

 Millerville, in Clay County, and about Blue Hill in Tallapoose 

 County. (2) In the mica schists and other highly crystalline 

 rocks graphite is found in the form of thin crystalline flakes 

 which may be separated from the associated minerals. Graphi- 

 tic schists of this type are now being worked at three localities 

 and have in the past been worked at several others." 



One of the most interesting graphite deposits in Korth Caro- 

 lina is one in Alexander County, about 5 miles from Taylors- 

 ville.'* The properties upon which this graphite has been found 

 are first encountered about 5 miles a little south of west from 

 Taylorsville on the eastern and northeastern slopes of Barretts 

 Mountain, and graphite has been observed at intervals for a dis- 

 tance of over two miles in a direction a few degrees west of 

 South. 



The country rocks are schists and gneisses, cutting through 

 which are pegmatitic dikes varying from a few inches to five 

 (5) feet or more in thickness. The graphite occurs in these 



3 United States Geological Survey. Mineral Resources 1910, p. 903. 



* Economic Paper 6, North Carolina Geological Survey, 1902, pp. 71-72. 



