ALABAMA MICA DEPOSITS 99 



The mine was originally opened in 1889 by Dr. P. B. 

 Ivey and G. W. McWade of Birmingham, Ala. Develop- 

 ments made by Ivey and McWade consisted of an open 

 cut on the outcrop, and a shaft 25 feet deep subsequently 

 lowered. 



From a comparatively small open cut, and in the sink- 

 ing of this shaft, there is said to have been taken out by 

 these operators some 25 tons in all of mica, nearly twen- 

 ty per cent of which is reported to have been run-of-mine 

 sheet of various classes, subsequently worked up in the 

 mica shop and sold. 



Somewhere about 1912 to 1915 the mine is stated to 

 have been leased to J. E. Burleson of North Carolina, the 

 results, if any, of whose operation, were not ascertainable. 



Subsequently, the mine remained inactive until 1920 

 when it was leased to the Coosa County Mica Company, 

 during whose term of lease about 45 tons of mica in all 

 was taken out, mainly won over a new slope, driven down 

 80 feet in the pegmatite from the entry point in the en- 

 larged and deepened old cut marked "C" on the plan of 

 the mine workings. 



At this point, and in this operation, a large percentage 

 of the mica recovered is said to have been of A-form. 

 The slope having been back-filled could not be examined, 

 and no samples were available representing the recovered 

 stock taken out by the Coosa County Mica Company. 



When visited in January of the present year 1921, de- 

 velopment work had recently been in progress by the 

 present owners of the mine, the Scott Investment Com- 

 pany of Montgomery, Alabama, but had just been dis- 

 continued owing to unfavorable weather and labor condi- 

 tions. 



A new slope was at that time being driven by the mine 

 owners, located as shown at "A" on the plan, carried down 

 on a 45 slope angle, which slope had been temporarily 

 abandoned at water level, 40 feet down, for lack of ade- 

 quate pumping facilities. 



Little or no lagging was used or required in this slope 

 except at the top, as it lies altogether in the hard and 

 firm red mica schists which constitute both the foot and 

 hanging walls enclosing the pegmatites. 



