64 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 



McCormack of Birmingham, Ala., the old pits just E. of 

 the Great Southern property line were reopened, and sev- 

 eral tons of clear amber muscovite sheet of medium to 

 large size were recovered from an extensive bed entered 

 of a pure white kaolin of porcelain grade. 



This plan of development has been abandoned by the 

 present operating company in favor of recovery by means 

 of five shafts, spaced at intervals of about 300 feet, along 

 a line running due E. from the old surface cuts, follow- 

 ing, and being driven down in a pegmatite lead having a 

 local strike of 70 D , N.W-S.E., and a dip, difficult to 

 determine, but approaching the perpendicular. 



No accurate idea can be formed of the thickness or of 

 the extent of the micaized pegmatite body entered by these 

 shafts, as no cross entries have been as yet driven. 



The observed characteristics of the pegmatite to the 

 depth reached, are a predominating partially kaolinized 

 feldspar, accompanied by small chips and angular frag- 

 ments of quartz, except in the most westerly of the shafts, 

 in which a considerable body of massive white quartz was 

 encountered and driven through. The foot and hanging- 

 walls of the pegmatite not having been reached, their 

 character has not been determined but is probably the 

 red mica gneiss generally observed in other occurrences 

 near by. 



The two most easterly shafts have been driven to a 

 depth of 26 feet, partially timbered at the bottom, and 

 contained some water. The third shaft, driven centrally 

 of the group, to a depth of 25 feet, has a N. entry at the 

 bottom, 15 feet in length, which w r as said not to have yet 

 reached the N. wall of the pegmatite. Some 20 tons of 

 white quartz was removed from this shaft in sinking, 

 along the contact with which quartz several tons of mica 

 were recovered. The shaft lies altogether in hard mate- 

 rial and is not timbered. West of this shaft about 25 feet, 

 another shaft 18 feet deep has been sunk, and a third 

 shaft, some 25 feet still further W., to a depth of 25 

 feet; the latter shaft, solidly timbered from top to bot- 

 tom and containing some water, being bottomed in the 

 kaolin bed opened up by the adjoining surface pits pre- 

 viously mentioned. 



