74 GOLD AND TIN DEPOSITS OF SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS. 
AGE OF THE DEPOSITS. 
Concerning the geologic age of the gold deposits little direct evidence is obtainable. 
The deposits were formed after the greatest metamorphic movements had ceased, but the 
crushing and slight faulting which some of them have experienced indicate that they did 
not escape all movement. It seems probable that movements which did affect them were 
the last agents of dynamic metamorphism. This supposition is supported by the one that 
the gold deposits closely followed the granite intrusions. The ore bodies are cut by the 
diabase dikes, which are probably of Jura-Triassic age. All available evidence points to 
pre-Cambrian as the probable age of the deposits. 
It is said that the gravels of nearly all the streams of this area yield " colors " of gold when 
panned. Where the gold is sufficiently abundant these placer or "branch" deposits have 
been worked, often with profit. In the early days discrimination was not always made 
between the true placers and the loose, decomposed outcrops of deposits in place. 
While placers have been of importance in this portion of the South, most of the placer 
mining was done in the early days of the gold excitement, and information is not easily 
obtained at present. The location of only a few of these deposits is now known. 
A deposit from which much gold was taken was called the Martin or Enterprise mine, 
and is situated about 1 mile southwest of Smyrna station, in York County. The placer is; 
said to have been discovered about 1836, and most work was done before the war along a 
shallow stream which has been "washed" several times. It is said that the workable 
gravels had an areal extent of 4 acres .a Much gold has also been picked up from the 
nearby fields after rains. It is reported that a nugget worth $44 and numerous others of] 
less value have been found at this mine, and Lieber states that a piece of quartz contain- 
ing 4,000 pennyweights of gold was found in the gravels. & One man took out $40,000 
before the war, according to report. It is stated that a gold-bearing vein occurs close 
to the creek, and pits have been sunk there, but at the time of the writer's visit no indi- 
cation of a vein was seen. The last work here was done four or five years ago. 
Much work was done in the early days at the Brewer mine in what is known as the Tan- 
yard pit. This was probably the first placer in the State. It is several hundred yards 
from the hard-rock workings and occupies a very slight depression below the surface of 
the peneplain, although a short distance away is a rather deep stream valley, c 
A little work has recently been done a few miles south of Gaffney, S. C, but has not 
proved successful. Washing is being done on a small scale in a stream near the Westj 
mine. The Belk placer, in Lancaster County, east of Lancaster, the Austin placer near 
Gaffney, and numerous others were being or had been operated at the time Lieber wrote 
his reports. ^ Small nuggets have been picked up in the fields in many places, often noli 
near any stream or depression nor in the neighborhood of any known deposit in place. 
Two features concerning these placer deposits are worthy of note. The first point is the 
richness of some of the placers when compared with the usual low grade of the hard-rock 
deposits. In the second place, deposits, some of them rich, of waterworn gold have not 
uncommonly been found on elevations and divides away from and above present streams 
or valleys. This fact was observed as early as 1825 by Professor Olmsted,^ and it is stated, 
by Lieber that these placer deposits commonly occur on the foot-wall side of the near-by; 
vein or hard-rock deposit./ 
From these facts two> conclusions may be drawn — namely, that the present streams have 
not been the only factor in the concentration of the gold and that much of the gold has been 
a Lieber, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 75-76; vol. 3, pp. 154, 157. 
6 Op. cit., vol. 1, p. 76. 
cCf. Lieber, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 66-67; vol. 3, p. 157. 
dOp. cit., vol. 1, pp. 76-77; vol.2, p. 71. 
e Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 9, 1825, p. 13. 
/ Op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 157-158. 
