ALABAMA MICA DEPOSITS 69 



constituting the reported output of the old mine, of 

 which there can be no doubt. 



Schefner Mine. The Schefner mine, originally opened 

 by Mr. Frank Schefner, in 1919-20, is located in the N. E. 

 1/4 of the N. W. % of Section 1, Township 18 S., Range 

 10 E., being i/ 2 mile west of Micaville, adjoining, and 

 lying immediately S. of, the Cleburne-Randolph county 

 line. It has recently been acquired and is now being fur- 

 ther exploited and opened up by the Midland Mica Syn- 

 dicate of Minneapolis, Minn. 



Recent developments on this property have mainly cen- 

 tralized about an old open cut located on the Eastern 

 Central area, together with an old working mine shaft 

 at present 64 feet deep, from which flat mica of good 

 sheeting quality, running to large sizes, is known to 

 have been recovered by Mr. Smith of Wetumpka, Ala., 

 including some larger crystals, one weighing 300 pounds. 

 Examination of old weathered mica in the dumps ap- 

 pears to be confirmatory of these statements. 



Examination of the old shaft, which had not caved in 

 to any extent although not timbered, showed a circular 

 chambered out stope at the bottom all around the shaft 

 base, carried out as far into a kaolinized pegmatite de- 

 posit as was safely possible without timber sets and 

 proper lagging for roof support. No entries had been 

 driven either with the strike of the chute or across it, 

 so that the walling and the form of the pegmatite body 

 has not been defined. The pegmatite aggregate is large- 

 ly made up of quartz, in and around which the mica is 

 carried, but appears to have been robbed out before aban- 

 donment of the operation, such mica as remained being 

 principally small, but of flat sheet. 



Several new shafts and a number of new and old pros- 

 pect pits, have been opened up near the old mine shaft 

 above described, located on outcrops, mainly in and 

 around the edges of a well-defined and extensive outcrop 

 of quartz. 



As defined by these developments, the pegmatite leads 

 here opened up, of which there appears to be several, have 

 a general N. E.-S. W. strike, dipping S. E. at various, but 

 generally steep angles. 



