56 MINERAL RESOURCES OF ALABAMA. 



Mining on the quartz veins has been carried on in a very un- 

 scientific way, and hardly ever beyond the water level. Until 

 the past year or two no plant has been in operation for working 

 the sulphurets. One establishment of the kind using the cyan- 

 ide process is at Hog Mountain, and is meeting with success. 



Most of the early mining o>f quartz veins was done years ago 

 in the Goldville district and a line of old pits and shafts may 

 still be seen along a distance of 12 miles or more. Extensive 

 workings were also in the old time carried on about Silver Hill. 

 Pinetucky also was one o>f the early mines, and it has been in 

 continuous operation to the present time. The Pinetucky shaft 

 is about 100 feet deep. 



Gold mining in Alabama has not been as yet one of the pay- 

 ing industries, a fact due as we believe mainly to the insufficient 

 capital and inadequate methods and appliances in use. The ex- 

 periment at Hog Mountain will, therefore, be watched with in- 

 terest. 



Recently at Kemp Creek postoffice, in Cleburne county, ex- 

 tensive preparations have been made for the hydraulic working 

 on a large scale of some very promising placer deposits. Water 

 is brought a distance of four miles by ditch and flume, and the 

 successful outcome of this enterprise will no doubt lead to the 

 establishment of similar plants in other places. 



In conclusion, we may say that the gold fields of Alabama 

 offer inducements to capitalists, since there are very extensive 

 ueposits of ore, low grade, it is true, but of such extent and so 

 easily and cheaply mined and milled, that there seems to be little 

 doubt of the result if the working be done on sufficiently large 

 scale and with the most improved methods and those best adapt- 

 ed to the character of the ores. 



In Bulletins 3 and 5 of the Geological Survey will be found 

 more detailed information regarding the gold region, and the 

 material is now nearly all in hand for a final report on the sub- 

 ject. 



Copper Ore and Pyrite. 



Pyrite. Along the eastern base of the range of mountains 

 known as the Talladega Mountain, there is a belt of greenish 

 rock, resulting from the alteration of an igenous rock, and to 

 this we have given the name Hillabee Schist. Its outcrops have 



