278 
GEOLOGY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
The mine being situated at the distance of 40 miles from the nearest 
railroad depot, (Marion, Ya.), it was desirable to reduce the ores on the 
spot. For this purpose the process of precipitation, by the method of 
Hunt & Douglass, has been adopted, and the works were turning out 
daily 2\ tons of “ cement copper,” yielding 75 to 80 per cent, of the 
metal. Preparations were making to erect furnaces for smelting the 
cement copper, and thus saving an additional item of cost of transport, by 
hauling only the pure pig copper to the railroad. The furnaces I am in- 
formed have been erected and all tbe operations of reduction are com- 
pleted on the ground. Preparations were also making to double the ca- 
pacity of the reducing works, which when completed will place Ore 
Knob among the leading copper mines of the world. To carry on these 
large operations, which is done by the employment of the labor which 
the region itself furnishes, a considerable town has already sprung up in 
the wilderness, and a market has been created for all that the region can 
produce. 
The intelligence, skill and energy displayed in the rapid and successful 
development of this magnificent property are beyond all praise, and have 
well merited the splendid results which are already more than in sight. 
It is very unfortunate that a proposition from the same enterprising 
gentlemen, the Messrs. Clayton, father and son, was not accepted by the 
owners of the Elk Knob Mine. The whole region, and the state even, 
would feel the impulse of this activity and reap the most direct and varied 
benefits. 
It is not improbable that this very decided success may lead to further 
investments in the great copper range which extends, with interruptions, 
from Ore Knob to Ducktown, including Elk Knob and the promising 
veins above mentioned in Jackson and Haywood. 
I add some general notes by Dr. Genth, which were published in the 
Journal of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, in 1872. They are the 
result of extensive observations made by this eminent minerolagist, both 
while he was assisting in the Geological Survey in 1S71, and during sev- 
eral years of residence and exploration in the mining districts of the state 
in former years, when mining operations were carried on very widely and 
on a large scale in all directions : so that his opportunities for intimate 
and extensive acquaintance with the history of mining among ns, and 
with the range and character and peculiarities ol the mineral veins and 
ore deposits of the state, are unsurpassed. 
Copper . — “ Copper ores have been found in many localities throughout 
the state, in the veins of the old gneissoid rocks, as well as in the more 
recent slates, and even in the triassic formation. 
