Recent Changes in Gold Mining 
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is doubtful whether with the present small plant and so 
vast a quantitj' of ore controlled by the Company such 
refinements are advisable, since they would probably reduce 
the capacity of the plant. It is estimated that the present 
cost of treatment is 22 cents per cubic yard loose measure 
with a recovery of between 50 cents and $1.00 per cubic yard. 
A great deal of the success of the Catawba Gold Mining- 
Company is due to its conservative policy and the skill with 
which the whole mining and milling operation has been con- 
ducted. 
The next machine to be placed in operation was at the old 
Tallin Mine, near Cox, Randolph County, about 4 miles east 
of Cid Station on the Thompsonville and Glen Anna Railway. 
The Empire Mining Company own a tract of land which con- 
tains argillaceous slates containing two gold-bearing zones, 
200 feet wide by mile long, the northwest zone being along 
the south side of a hard quartz and siliceous slate vein. The 
early work on this property was done at the northeast end of 
the northwest zone where there are several large pits, some 
50 feet deep. The entire surface was tested by pan assays 
(weighing the amount of gold from known weighed amounts 
of ore) and a number of trenches were dug across the better 
portions of the zone. The results of this test led the Com- 
pany to instal their experimental plant on the gentle slope to 
another stream near the southwest end of the northwest zone. 
At the other end the slates are still soft at a depth of 50 feet, 
but here they were found to be quite solid and tough within 
6 or 7 feet of the surface, though drill holes are said to have 
proved that the rock is again soft below a 5 or 6 foot shell of 
hard material. The dip at this end is only 15 or 20 degrees 
instead of being nearly vertical as at the other. This tough 
slate is thoroughly oxidized and shows a very uniform distri- 
bution of wheat-like grains of limonite, formed from pyrite, 
which lie along the cleavage planes of the slate and all the 
gold occurs in them. 
This small branch has a steep fall for 2 miles to the Yad- 
kin River and for the experimental plant water is returned 
