GOLD. 59 
GOLD DEPOSITS. 
One groat cause of the lack of success which has attended gold mining in this region lies 
in the fact that instead of one recognized and well-defined type of gold deposit, as is the 
case in most mining districts, there are various types exhibiting a very wide range in char- 
acter, and individual mines present more and greater differences than similarities. Such 
conditions, whether they are appreciated or not, mean expensive mining. Advantage can 
not be taken of past experience to reduce the cost of exploitation. If methods which have 
proved successful in one mine are employed in another the chance is that they will be 
unsuccessful because they are not adapted to the dissimilar conditions of the second mine. 
Accordingly the owner is loath to apply to a new mine methods which have proved success- 
ful elsewhere, and is inclined instead to try new methods which may miss the mark as 
widely as those already in use. 
Because of this absence of a single type of deposit the study of this gold region has been 
not wholly satisfactory. In most mining districts the geologist sees more and more clearly 
into the character of the deposits as a whole as his work progresses, nearly every mine 
adding evidence to aid in the explanation of the type of deposit. In this region, however, 
the student of the ore deposits is confronted on all sides by new and perplexing features, 
which, instead of uniting to explain the main problem of the region, result simply in a mass 
of uncorrelated and distracting facts. Especial and unusual attention has therefore been 
given to the mine descriptions, since nearly every mine possesses distinctive features and 
has an importance of its own. 
OCCURRENCE AND STRUCTURE. 
In spite of the apparently general dissimilarity in character of the Carolina gold deposits, 
there exist among them all certain close relations which indicate that the differences are the 
result of extraneous conditions — such as the structure and character of the surrounding 
rock — and that all the deposits have the same origin. 
On the basis of the outward and readily perceived characters these deposits may be 
divided into two broad types-^-fissure veins and replacement deposits. These two are 
joined together by deposits which partake in part of the nature of each. Placer deposits 
will be considered later. 
FISSURE VEINS. 
The fissure veins which are essentially quartz veins with more or less pyrite are exceedingly 
abundant. They are present in nearly all paits of the area, conspicuously appearing 
because of their resistance to decomposition, wherever the soil is exposed: Many of the 
larger veins outcrop strongly. The veins occur principally in dense metamorphic rocks 
and seem to be most common in amphibolite or in the gabbro, closely related to it. They 
have been formed by the filling of fracture spaces and probably have in many cases pushed 
their walls apart both by the pressure from below, transmitted by the solutions and by the 
force of crystallization. In size they range from the merest stringers, a small fraction of an 
inch in width, to large, solid veins 20 feet or more wide. Most of the veins dip at steep 
angles. In the majority of cases they conform somewhat closely in strike and dip with the 
foliation of the inclosing metamorphic rocks, but here and there they cut across the schis- 
tosity of the country rock. The interfoliated veins are in general exceedingly irregular. 
They swell and pinch, turn and jog, split and unite in a most aggravating manner. It has 
repeatedly happened that a vein of good size and apparent persistency was found suddenly 
to break up into a mass of small stringers which could not be profitably worked. Conversely 
it is probable that sinking on groups of these narrow veinlets, which are too poor or too 
small or too scattered to be profitable, would show that in many instances they unite to 
form a single large vein or lens which may hold pay ore. (See fig. 13, p. 101.) Cross 
veins are much less numerous, but from what can be learned they are decidedly more regu- 
lar and persistent than the conformable veins. 
