92 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



Pyrite Situation in Illinois. 



The pyrite inventory in Illinois, as well as in the other 

 states, can most properly be looked upon as insurance 

 against a possible contingency. Yet so far as Illinois is 

 concerned, it will possibly lead to some benefits to the coal 

 trade on a peace basis. 



It has been shown that pyrite can be recovered at wash- 

 eiaes at a very small expense. The expense involves the 

 installation and operation of one or two more jigs where 

 the refuse is washed, to recover the pyrite, the refuse itself 

 being furnished without cost as a product of the coal 

 washery. At least one coal washery has installed a pyrite- 

 recovery section during the last year. Others would prob- 

 ably find it profitable to do the same. 



The pyrite inventory has also furnished a more sys- 

 tematic body of information relative to the distribution 

 and occurrence of the pyrite than heretofore has existed. 

 Tlie investigations of the resources and the search for low- 

 sulphur coal in connection with the work on gas coals 

 performed by the Gas Section of the Illinois Mining In- 

 vestigations have together furnished information relative 

 to the distribution of sulphur and pyrite that is doubtless 

 of sufficient general interest to warrant brief comment. 



The accompanying map shows the Illinois coal basin 

 surrounded by a red border. It shows also in colors the 

 areas wherein the various coals are mined. Thus, in the 

 pink areas No. 2 coal is mined ; in the green, No. 1 ; in the 

 yeellow, No. 5 ; in the blue, No. 6 ; and in the brown, No. 7. 

 The bright yellow area with a reddish area within it, in the 

 southern part of the State, has no reference to the number 

 of the coal. It lies within the area in which No. 6 coal is 

 mined. 



The actual sulphur content of the coals of the State, as 

 determined by analyses of face samples, differs in a con- 

 spicuous degree only as between coals of southern Illinois 

 and coals of central and northern Illinois. Small black 

 figures on the map show the average sulphur content of the 

 coal at about 100 representative mines, as determined by 

 3 or more analyses of face samples at each mine. There 



