54 GOLD AND TIN DEPOSITS OF SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS. 
of sizes to handle. It is expected that in this way better results will be obtained and that the 
capacity of the table will be increased, while the jigs are relied on to handle with ease the 
increased amount of larger size. As the plant is operated at present, it is doubtful if the 
finest tin is being saved. If the tailings from the Bartlett table were carefully sized and the 
fines run over a Frue vanner, it is probable that an additional amount could be obtained, but 
whether the saving thus effected would compensate for the extra cost is not known. 
At the Ross mine very little hard ore has been mined, most of the cassiterite thus far taken 
out being contained in the soft, putty-like kaolin which constitutes a large part of the upper 
decomposed portion of the dike. Sluicing does not succeed in removing this sticky material 
from the cassiterite. Some concentration in hand jigs has been done, but the process which 
seems most simple and effective is washing through a coarse screen and sluicing the material 
which passes through. Constant turning, with the shovel, of the material on the screen 
servos to remove the kaolin from the cassiterite. By shoveling over and over the material in 
the first box or sluice a very good concentrate is produced. This process is the same as that 
used for the concentration of monazi'te. Much of the float or placer tin has been recovered 
in this way, because scarcity of water and the small extent of the deposits have made ground 
sluicing impracticable. 
PRODUCTION. 
The only production from the Carolina tin belt of which there is accurate record is that 
from the Ross mine. This amounted to 38,471 pounds of cassiterite concentrates in 1903 
and 35,925 pounds in 1904, a total of 74,396 pounds of concentrates. The actual total con- 
tent of metallic tin is not known to the writer. The 1903 shipment is said to have run 
about 70 per cent tin and, according to assays by Ledoux & Co., the 1904 shipment aver-] 
aged about 66 per cent. On the assumption that the entire output to date has averaged 
66 per cent tin, the total amount of metallic tin shipped from the Ross mine has been] 
about 50,000 pounds, or 25 tons. A few thousand pounds of concentrates are now ready 
for shipment at this mine and nearly a carload has been produced at the Jones mine. 
From these two sources perhaps at most 20 tons of metal may be obtained. Two carloads 
of ore sent to England by Ledoux in the early days of activity in tin mining are said to 
have averaged about 2 per cent metallic tin; the total amount could not have been over 1* 
ton of metal. If to this is added the amount of cassiterite that has been carried away as 
curios, specimens, and samples for assay, it is found that the total production of metallic 
tin from the Carolinas is probably not over 50 short tons. A considerable portion of this 
amount, probably over half, was derived from lodes, or at least from deposits in place. I 
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF THE TIN DEPOSITS. 
To the mining man and the investor the topic of moment is the prospective economic 
value of these deposits. Discussions as to geologic occurrence, origin, etc., may enable 
them to arrive at conclusions which can be reached in no other way, but what they most 
desire to know is, Will the deposit pay; and if so, how well? 
A number of important factors, of which several are more or less interdependent, enter 
into the consideration of this question. The price of tin, the richness of the ore, the size 
of the ore bodies and their relation to depth, and the cost of mining, milling, and trans- 
portation — all these points demand consideration before final conclusions as to the com- 
mercial value of these deposits can be reached. 
In a report of this scope, covering a region where so little development has been accom- 
plished and where the production has been so scanty, several of these points can not be 
discussed satisfactorily. Certain facts which have a bearing on the question have, how- 
ever, been learned and may be presented. 
VALUE OF THE ORE. 
Three ore bodies in the district have been prospected by underground workings. Results 
at the Faires mine were unsatisfactory. It is doubtful if the average content of the whole 
ore shoot at the Jones mine will reach 5 per cent of concentrates. At the Ross mine the 
