HAILE OOI,D MINE. 
77 
At the Brewer mine, where loose, sandy ore is milled down into cars, trammed to the mill, 
run through stamps to insure uniform fineness, and then amalgamated, it is said that the 
total cost is under 60 cents per ton. These operations, however, can be carried on only for 
a short time before ore of this character will be exhausted, so the above figures have little 
significance. At the Blackmon mine underground stoping of a large ore body is going on, 
the ore being stamped and amalgamated. It is said that $2 ore gives a fair profit. 
Accurate account is kept of all expenses at the Haile mine. Here large ore bodies, well 
developed, are mined by open cuts, the ore is stamped, amalgamated, and concentrated, and 
the concentrates are roasted and chlorinated. Considerable development work, particu- 
larly with diamond and churn drills, is being done. For the last two years the total cost of 
these operations has been under $1.60 per ton of ore mined. This, it will be admitted, is 
exceedingly low. 
HAILE MINE. 
The Haile (formerly called Hale") mine is situated on Lynches Creek, 3^ miles northeast 
of Kershaw, in the southern part of Lancaster County, S. C. It is the property of the Haile 
Gold Mining Company, of New York City. 
HISTORY AND PRODUCTION. 
This mine has been worked more or less continuously since about 1830 and during all that 
time has been one of the most important mines of the region. In early days leases were 
given on sections 50 feet square, and open cuts were made on these claims by slave labor. 
This was of course disastrous to systematic, economic mining. The upper, oxidized portions 
of the ore bodies were rich and some of them yielded lumps of gold worth from $300 to $500. & 
Except during war time, open cutting was carried on until about 1880, when actual under- 
ground mining was begun and continued up to about four years ago. A return to the open- 
cut system has been made, on a much larger scale than formerly. This mine, said to be the 
only steady dividend-paying gold mine in the Southern Appalachians, owes its success in 
recent years very largely to the intelligence and persistent efforts of Capt. Adolph Thies, 
who for nearly twenty years was its manager. Mr. E. A. Thies, his son and the present 
manager, is following the same policy. 
Spilsburyc gives the production of the Haile mine up to 1883 as over $1,250,000, and it 
has been said that the production since that time has been about $2,000,000, making the 
estimated total production about $3,250,000. As the company is a close organization, the 
amount of dividends paid is not known. 
DEVELOPMENT. 
The development of the Haile mine consists of a number of shafts, with drifts and cross- 
cuts, and of three large open cuts. (See fig. 8.) The deepest shaft is the No. 4 shaft of the 
Cross workings, 350 feet deep, with levels at depths of 200, 270, and 350 feet. The bottom 
of the No. 2 shaft connects at the 200-foot level. The drifting from these two shafts 
amounts probably to 3,500 feet. A 130-foot winze has been sunk from the 350-foot level, 
east of the No. 4 shaft. An old shaft at the Beguelin workings is about 180 feet deep and 
has two levels aggregating about 1,200 feet. No. 5 shaft, to the west of No. 4, is 100 feet 
deep, with short levels at 60 and 100 feet. The Chase Hill shaft is also about 100 feet deep. 
There is a 60-foot shaft on Red Hill, northeast of the Cross workings. 
The principal open cut is the Haile pit, about 250 feet long and 200 feet wide by 180 feet 
deep. A diabase dike crosses the middle of this cut and, being barren, has been left in 
place to serve as a pillar. On the east side of this dike open cutting was carried down about 
100 feet and then the cut was filled with waste. The west side, called the new Haile pit, is 
being worked at present at a depth of 180 feet, a chute connecting to a short intermediate 
level at 185 feet, and thence to the 200-foot level of the No. 2 shaft, where the ore is hoisted. 
a Lieber, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 60. 
b Lieber. op. cit., vol. 1, p. 62. Lakes, A., Mines and Minerals, vol. 21, 1900, p. 56. 
c Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 12, 1884, p. 102. 
