THE MINING AND QUARRY INDUSTRY ICH2 99 



crushing machinery, so that the crushing and grinding can be con- 

 ducted in separate rooms, a great factor in relieving the dusty con- 

 ditions that are often very objectionable if not unhealthful. 



The International Pulp Co., whose activity in former years was 

 divided among a large number of mining and. milling properties 

 secured by repeated consolidations and by leaseholds, has concen- 

 trated attention recently upon a few which are more advantageously 

 situated. The principal mines now worked are No. 2^ and No. 3 

 at Talcville, and the Wight mine near Sylvia lake. The operation 

 of No. 3 mine was hampered during the last year by the loss of the 

 water power plant at Talcville, but a new steam plant has been 

 installed. The mine is one of the largest in the whole district, 

 having a depth of about 500 feet on the incline and a system of 

 levels which extends nearly double that distance along the strike. 

 The working thickness of the body ranges from 15 to 40 feet. The 

 Talcville mill was burned down with the power plant and only 

 No. 6 and the Columbia mill were steadily operated. 



The Ontario Talc Co., with mine and mill near Fullerville, was 

 a steady producer. 



The new developments in talc mining at Natural Bridge have 

 been attended with much interest as the first important under- 

 taking of the kind outside of the Gouverneur district. The property 

 began regular shipments of talc with the completion of the mill last 

 season ; and the initial operations are reported to have been very 

 successful, as the product proved well adapted for paper manu- 

 facture. The St Lawrence Talc Co., Inc., the owner, has already 

 begun the enlargement of its milling capacity and continued the 

 development of the mine. The talc from this section, as has been 

 already mentioned in earlier reports, differs from the characteristic 

 Gouverneur product which for the most part is of fibrous nature 

 with subordinate amounts of foliated or scaly talc. The material 

 at Natural Bridge, however, has a massive appearance, or at most 

 shows an indistinctly granular habit, and is really a complex of 

 alteration products. The color is prevailingly grayish, but there is 

 also more or less of a greenish waxy substance intermingled with 

 the gray talcose minerals. The green comes in part from serpentine, 

 but mostly is referable to a chloritic mineral which has a compact 

 massive appearance, lacking the cleavage that characterizes ordinary 

 chlorite. Chemical analysis confirms the presence of such a mineral 

 which may be identical with the variety called pseudophite. The 

 apparently massive talc resolves itself under the microscope into 

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