TUH ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 171 



mines has in South Carolina, viz : that with suitable methods 

 of extraction the low grade ores can be mined and milled with 

 profit, and we look confidently forward to the time when pay- 

 ing gold mines will be in operation in all of the counties named, 

 and perhaps in others. 



\Miile small traces of gold may be found in the strata of 

 almost all of the geological formations of Alabama (since these 

 liave derived from ancient rocks which carry the gold veins), 

 yet it would be folly to expend any money in the search for 

 gold outside of the region above defined, and for that matter 

 no paying deposit of gold ore has been known to occur- in the 

 southeastern half of this region of the crystalline rocks, com- 

 monly spoken of as the gold region. All the gold worth men- 

 tioning from this region occurs to the north and west of a line 

 passing northeast and southwest through D^deville in Talla- 

 poosa county. Reports of discoveries of gold mines outside 

 of the gold region are common enough, but when sifted down 

 they may always be shown to be based on the mistaking of iron 

 pyrites or some other mineral for gold, or upon fraud. We 

 have had notable cases of the latter in the Tennessee Valley, 

 near Guntersville, and in the DeSoto mines on the Coosa 

 river. 



Copper. — Twenty years ago there was much interest in 

 copper, and hundreds of test pits were made at various' points 

 in Cleburne, Clay. Coosa, Tallapoosa and other counties of 

 this region. At only one point, however, viz : at Wood's Cop- 

 per Mine, near Stonehill P. O. in Cleburne county, was any 

 considerable amount of copper won. Here, under the direc- 

 tion of Capt. Adolph Thiess. work was carried on for several 

 }ears. and a large amount of copper ore raised and shipped to 

 I'.altimore. These operations were carried on till all the richer 

 surface ores had been exhausted, and the mining of the body of 

 the vein, a superfluous pyrites, had become unprofitable because 

 of the low grade of the ore and the difficulties of transporta- 

 tion. X^othing has been done here since 1876 or 1877 until 

 about 1895. when a company has again opened up the mine 

 and raised a considerable amount of ore, which still lies piled 

 about the mouth of the shaft, awaiting transportation facili- 

 ties. 



At intervals along the pyrite belt next to be considered, the 

 ere contains a notable percentage of copper, but this metal has 



