112 GOLD AND TIN DEPOSITS OF SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS. 
It must be remembered also that in both classes of deposits increasing depth will in general 
moan increasing cost of production, especially in this region where there is no apparent 
solution of the water problem except by pumping. A further serious handicap to success 
is the fact that in nearly all the mines the decomposed ores, which allowed comparatively 
easy extraction of the gold, are now almost or quite exhausted, and that the sulphide 
ores to which operators now must look for future production can be treated only if rich 
enough to warrant being shipped to a smelter, or, if of lower grade, only by the outlay of 
considerable capital in the erection of a plant for concentration, if not for roasting and 
lixiviation also. 
Finally, there arises the question of discovery of new mines or ore bodies. There is 
little doubt that there exist in this region many deposits of gold which are now unknown. 
When it is remembered, however, that prospecting has been going on more or less actively 
right here for nearly a century, with only unimportant results in recent years, and that for 
a decade or two before the war this was distinctly a mining region where practically the 
whole population was incited to activity by the possibility of discovering gold, and when it 
is considered what great amounts of money must have been spent in the early stages of 
exploratory development, one can but admit that the ground has been pretty carefully 
searched. Add to this the fact that probably a great proportion of the placer gold, which 
in the early days aided materially in the location and discovery of the deposits in place, has 
been removed, and it becomes plain that the prospect for any important addition to the 
localities of gold now known is not bright. 
In conclusion, then, it seems probable that if the production of the region is to be main- 
tained or increased, this will be due to a few large mines, and that more likely the future 
will bring to this region a gradual decline in importance, both relative and actual. 
OTHER MINERAL PRODUCTS OF THE REGION. 
Silver has never been found in commercial quantities in this area, and so far as known no 
distinct silver mineral has been reported. The metal is not wholly absent, however. It 
probably constitutes a large part of the material which brings down the fineness of the gold 
bullion to an average of about 0.900. It also probably occurs in the galena and tetrahedrite 
of the Kings Mountain mine and was said to be present to the extent of about 50 ounces 
per ton« in some of the ore from the old Cameron lead mine in Cherokee County, S. C. 
Silver occurs in some quantity at the Silver Hill mine in Davidson County, JSi. C, but on 
the whole is not very plentiful in the Southern Appalachians. 
Copper occurs in many parts of the area, as may be seen from an examination of the list 
of minerals given under gold (pp. 62-63), but in nearly all cases the amount is so small as to 
be negligible. Chalcopyrite is the most common copper-bearing mineral, and has been found 
at the Kings Mountain, Ferguson, Big Wilson, and Colossus gold mines; at the Mary copper 
mine; at the Cameron lead mine; at the Jones tin mine, and at other places. At the 
Brewer mine enargite, the copper-arsenic sulphide, occurs in small crystalline grains in the 
blue siliceous gold ore. By decomposition it furnishes covellite (cupric sulphide), and on 
complete oxidation chalcanthite, the hydrous cupric sulphate, is produced. The chalean- 
thite forms blue coatings on the walls of the open pit wherever recent work has not been 
done. It is also noted by Becker in the Kings Mountain mine, forming a blue slime on the 
walls. Chrysocolla is said to occur in an old shaft of the same mine. Metallic copper is said 
to have been found at the Nott mine in Union County, S. C. From the description of the 
occurrence there it seems probable that this copper is a product of secondary enrich- 
ment from original sulphide ores above. Pyrrhotite, probably copper bearing, is found at 
'Ci. Lieber, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 78. 
