THE ADIRONDACK GRAPHITE DEPOSITS 1 37 



COMMERCIAL STATUS 



Bastin says that " Today there are more abandoned mines and 

 mills in the United States than the number in operation . . . 

 In the number of times some of these properties have changed hands 

 in the course of a few years, there is a record of misrepresentation 

 and disappointment that can hardly be equaled in any other branch 

 of mining, and many properties have been notoriously associated 

 with stock manipulators of doubtful character." 



Newland reports that " The amount of capital expended in the 

 erection of new milling plants and mine equipment during the past 

 five years aggregates several hundred thousand dollars, and in many 

 cases there has been little or no return for the outlay." 1 



Of the thirty-seven graphite properties here listed, only three are 

 in full operation, two of which are recently organized companies. 



The causes of these failures are many and varied. Some of 

 them have already been pointed out. The mining and milling of 

 graphite is a highly technical matter ; it is not an easy and quick road 

 to wealth. It demands a knowledge of the nature of the ore, its 

 tenor, the geological condition of the surrounding area, the precise 

 location of faults, folds, pinches, and swells, how the ore will crush, 

 the size and quality of the flake, of the best, the average run and the 

 poorest ore, how much mica is present etc. It is necessary to 

 know the possible resources and secure a mill equipment to corre- 

 spond. There are a great many factors that must be considered 

 before actual operations are undertaken. 



The writer has been greatly impressed by the lack of diamond 

 drilling in most of the graphite districts. Only two properties have 

 used this valuable method of securing data, and even then full 

 benefit from the cores has not been obtained. The drill records are 

 usually made by laymen in geology, and only the portions that are 

 composed of ore are saved. Some records, furnished to the writer, 

 were fairly intelligible and proved of value in detail mapping, while 

 others were so ambiguous as to be more confusing than helpful. 

 When a core is recovered, every inch of it should be saved ! In one 

 case a geologist who had the stratigraphy of the district in mind 

 could have furnished the owners a fairly complete description of the 

 conditions that would be found underground. All this information 

 has been lost with the loss of the cores. Sometimes where diamond- 

 drilling has been done it has been so planned that little or no returns 



1 Newland, D. H., N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 120, p. 30. 



