COLOSSUS GOLD MINE. 87 
genetic relation between the dikes and the ore. This subject is more fully discussed on 
pages 70-72. 
While considerable ore of workable grade remains in the ore bodies now developed, the 
new deposit recently discovered and others like it must be looked to if the mine is long to 
continue as an important producer. It may be that ore bodies possibly of equal grade 
with those already known exist along the same general zone at greater depth, but it is not 
so probable that they can be discovered and worked at a profit. The possibility that 
secondary enrichment has effected the value of the known deposits is too uncertain to allow 
prediction as to the value of bodies below the surface. Of the bodies which reach the sur- 
face, it is probable that the richest are already known, but it is reasonable to believe that 
along the strike of these known deposits others of workable grade exist and might be 
discovered by careful surface prospecting. 
COLOSSUS MINE. 
The Colossus mine is situated in Union County, N. C, about 4 miles south of Waxhaw, 
on the Seaboard Air Line, and about 3 miles from the South Carolina line. Until recently 
it was called the Howie a or Huey b mine, and was once known as the Cureton mine, c At 
one time it was one of a group known as the Grand Union Gold mine.d It was worked 
certainly as early as the fifties and probably earlier than that. Before the war Commodore 
Stockton owned and operated the mine and it was sometimes known as the Stockton mine. 
Considerable ore was taken out at that time. About fifteen years ago the mine was again 
worked and the production considerably augmented. Some three years ago a company 
began to cyanide the amalgamation tailings from former operations. The Colossus Gold 
Mining and Milling Company now has control of the property and was working rather 
extensively at the time of visit, This company has its head office at Nazareth, Pa., and 
Mr. William B. Shaffer is manager. 
No definite information is to be had regarding the production of this mine. Some say 
that a million has been produced, others half a million. In 1856 it was stated that the 
profit per month was $18,000 to $20,000 clear, e The cyaniding operation of a few years 
ago is said to have yielded $36,000. 
The development consists of four shafts with rather short levels and several trenches. 
The Bull Face shaft was started as an incline, but fifteen years ago it was made vertical 
and carried to a depth of 160 feet. Later an incline was started from the 120-foot level 
of the vertical shaft and carried downward about 200 feet, so that the total depth of the 
shaft is about 320 feet. Only a small amount of drifting has been done. Active pumping 
had lowered the water to 220 feet in November, 1904. The Old Nettie and the New Nettie 
shafts, both sunk under former management, are nearly filled with water and are much 
caved. It is said that the New Nettie shaft is over 300 feet deep. The Pansy shaft, which 
was put down by the present company, is 104 feet deep and has perhaps 200 feet of drifting 
and crosscutting at its bottom. An old open slope or trench exposes the upper portion of 
the ore body. 
In the way of surface development there is a small hoisting plant over the Pansy shaft, 
besides office buildings, assay office, etc. A 500-ton cyanide plant was well under con- 
struction at the time of visit. It is the intention of the company to work the mine as a 
large open cut, to break the ground by quarrying methods, raise and carry the ore in buckets 
by an aerial tramway reaching to the mill, dry crush by rolls to 30 mesh, and leach with 
cyanide in large vats. 
The geology of the Colossus mine is very similar to that of the Haile. Foliated quartz- 
sericite schists retain enough of their original character to show that they were porphyry 
a Emmons, E., Geol. Survey North Carolina, 1856, p. 133. 
i> Lieber, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 56. 
c Kerr and Ilanna, Ores of North Carolina (chap. 2 of Geology of North Carolina, vol. 2), 1893, p. 237. 
d Kerr and Hanna, op. cit., p. 261. 
e Lieber, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 43. 
