GRAY    [RON    ORES    OF    TALLADEGA    COUNTY,  ALA.  16£ 
Within  the  limits  of  this  property  the  range  changes  from  a  general 
north-south  to  an  east-west  trend.  As  the  strata  show  the  same 
change  in  strike,  the  same  geological  horizons  still  continue  from  the 
most  northern  to  the  most  western  part  of  the  property. 
The  Mesaba  mine  is  the  only  active  mine  in  the  district.  It  is 
located  on  the  range  where  it  is  cut  through  by  Tallaseehatchee  Creek 
in  sec.  10,  T.  21  S.,  R.  4  E.  The  mine  is  connected  with  the  main  line 
of  the  Louisville  and  Nashville  Railroad  by  a  spur  track  one-half  a 
mile  long,  which  runs  from  Mesaba  to  the  mine.  The  creek  affords 
sufficient  water  throughout  the  year  for  the  demands  of  mining. 
At  present  the  ore  is  won  mainly  by  open-cut  work,  although  the 
time  is  not  far  distant  when  deeper  work  will  be  necessary.  The  ore 
is  trammed  from  the  pits  on  the  different  levels  to  gravity  inclines 
where  cars  are  lowered  to  the  weighing  shed,  run  to  the  crusher, 
crushed  to  4  inches,  and  without  handling  dumped  into  the  ore  cars 
on  the  railroad.  The  ore  is  not  hand  picked  or  otherwise  sorted  or 
washed. 
As  the  present  work  is  entirely  on  the  surface  the  ore  is  more  or  less 
broken  up  and  disintegrated,  so  that  a  large  part  may  be  handled  by 
horse  scrapers  and  shovels.  As  greater  depth  is  attained  and  stope 
mining  is  begun  the  ore  will  undoubtedly  become  more  compact  and 
difficult  to  break  down.  This  will  necessitate  recourse  to  blasting 
on  an  extensive  scale  and  consequent  increase  of  cost  of  mining. 
The  ore  occurs  in  a  series  of  slates  and  quartzites  which  have  an 
easterly  dip  and  a  north-south  strike.  The  dip  varies  in  different  parts 
of  the  mine  owing  to  deformation  of  the  crust  through  folding  and 
faulting.  Although  the  dip  is  everywhere  easterly  there  is  strong 
reason  for  believing  that  the  rocks  have  been  folded  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  folds  have  been  overthrown,  and  that  in  some  places  this 
overfolding  has  been  so  intense  that  the  rocks  have  actually  been 
broken  and  pushed  on  top  of  strata  which  geologically  lie  above  them. 
'The  slates  and  quartzites  are  conformable — that  is,  the  beds  of  one  lie 
parallel  to  the  beds  of  the  other.  Where  this  relation  is  not  true  the 
discordance  is  due  to  faulting. 
The  distinction  between  ore  and  slate  is  generally  based  on  purely 
economic  grounds,  for  the  two  are  so  intimately  mixed  that  it  is  impos- 
sible1 to  take  out  one  without  also  removing  a  large  amount  of  the 
other.  This  fact  is  of  considerable  importance  in  estimating  the 
values  of  the  properties,  for  the  usual  analyses  do  not  take  into  con- 
sideration the  amount  of  slate  that  must  be  removed  in  winning  the 
ore. 
The  faults  in  this  region  are  of  two  distinct  types,  normal  and  reverse 
or  thrust  faults.  The  normal  faults — that  is,  those  faults  that  have 
the  downthrown  block  on  the  side  toward  which  the  fault  plane  dips- 
trend  generally  at  a  right  angle  to  the  range.     The  reverse  faults 
