90 GOLD AND TIN DEPOSITS OF SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS. 
BREWER MINE. 
The Brewer mine is situated on a branch of Lynch River, in Chesterfield County, S. C, 
about 4 miles southwest of Jefferson, on the Charlotte, Monroe and Columbia branch of the 
Seaboard Air Line. It is about 10 miles northeast of the Haile mine. The property is 
being worked by Mr. B. J. Hartman, under lease from the De Soto Mining Company. 
This was probably the first important producer in South Carolina,^ and is even believed 
by some to have been worked before the Revolutionary war.b In 1830 and 1831 from 
100 to 200 men were employed daily, c The first work was placer operations at what was 
known as the Tanyard deposit, which lies to the east of the present workings. Later, placer 
methods were applied to the decomposed portions of the deposits in place. Just before 
the civil war Commodore Stockton worked the mine and extracted the gold in Chilean 
mills and arrastres.d In the early eighties the Tanyard gravels were worked again, this 
time by hydraulicking. A 5-stamp mill was erected in 1885, in 1889 a 40-stamp mill was 
put in, and in 1892 a Thies chlorination plant was added, but continued in operation only 
a short time. It is said that the bringing of damage suits arising from tailings debris was one 
cause of cessation at this time. Spasmodic attempts, including some experimentation with 
the cyanide process, have since been made to resume active operations, but have brought 
little success. At present the mine is being worked on a small scale and the ore put through 
a 10-stamp mill with simple amalgamation. About half a dozen men comprise the force. 
No idea of the production of this mine can be given. In the early days, when the output 
was probably at its greatest, no figures were made public. Probably several hundred 
thousand dollars have been taken from the mine. 
The principal developments consist of two great open cuts. The old main pit is 140 
feet deep and 200 to 300 feet in diameter. A tunnel extends eastward from the bottom 
1,200 feet and leads to the mill near the river. Other tunnels or drifts have been run in 
various directions from the bottom of the pit. Several short levels, raises, and stopes 
make an irregular network underground, especially at the west side of the pit. About 500 
feet southwest of this pit is another, more than 100 feet deep and about 150 feet in 
diameter. There is some thought of sinking this to the level of the bottom of the larger pit 
and connecting the two by a crosscut. In addition to these large cuts there are several 
shallow shafts and pits. The 40-stamp mill is in fair condition, but the chlorination 
plant has been demolished. The 10-stamp mill now being used is not well housed. 
All geologists who have studied the Brewer mine have realized the difficulty of obtaining 
satisfactory knowledge of it. It is certain that porphyritic rocks, in part tuffaceous and 
brecciated, have been acted on by silica- and ore-bearing solutions. The rocks thus acted 
on differ so greatly from those which have escaped most of this action that it is difficult 
to decide if they were originally the same. The conclusion which seems most in accord 
with the facts is that all was once the same rock, but that intense brecciation, amounting 
almost to pulverization, affected some portions and left other masses only a little shattered. 
Then, when solutions sought to permeate this mass, they found easiest passage in the f rag- 
mental portions and there expended almost all their chemical and physical energy. The 
rock which remains least altered is a light-colored, fairly coarse-grained porphyry, 
with a small proportion of groundmass. The only recognizable original constituents are 
sparing grains of quartz and abundant phenocrysts of a mineral whose identity has not yet 
been established, e The quartz is penetrated by numerous prismatic crystals, apparently 
of secondary origin, possibly topaz, and the unknown mineral is in the majority of cases 
aCf. Lieber, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 07. 
b Kerr and Hanna, op. cit., p. 234. 
c Becker, G. F., Gold fields of the Southern Appalachians: Sixteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, 
pt. 3, 1895, p. 257. 
dCf. Nitze and Wilkens, Bull. North Carolina Geol. Survey No. 10, 1897, p. 145. 
e Dr. W. F. Hillebrand is now working on the analysis of this mineral. The purest material which 
has been separated has the maximum specific gravity of topaz, 2.57. Analyses of less pure portions 
show that the mineral has the same percentage of silica and alumina as topaz, but appears to contain 
less fluorine. In addition to this chemical disparity, the optical properties differ markedly from those 
of topaz. It may very well be, therefore that this is a new mineral. It is hoped that definite informa- 
tion on this point will soon be obtained. 
