The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-12-07
Phosphate M nlng.
SOUTH CARoLINA's MARVELLOUS NATURAL
PRoDUCT-A RECENTLY DEVELOPED
INDUSTRY.

PRoDUCT-A RECENTLY DEVELOPED
INDUSTRY.
Within seven years the annual value
of South Cardinals mineral resources
has increased from Sl,371 ,939 to 49,
093,028, and of this about SO per cent.
is phosphate rock. Visitors to the
New Orleans Exposition in 1884 and
1885 will remember pyramid formed
entirely of this curious deposit. It may
now be seen at the spacious hall of the
state department of agriculture in
Columbia, S. c., where it towers from
. base twenty feet square to the height
of thirty feet. Long known to geolo-
gists, it was not until 1867 that the
commercial Importance of South Caro-
lima phosphates was recognized, yet
more than 100000 tons of the rock
have been mined and shipped since the
peculiar industry was established. A
dozen land and twenty river mining
companies, now actively working, have
100000 invested. During the three
years. 1868, 1869 and 1870, only 2O,-
900 tons were raised, 80 per cent. of
which was land mining In 1880
125,O0O tons were produced from the
land mines and upwards of $4,000 tons
Of river rock. Last year the total out
put was 433,000 tons, almost equally
divided between the two varieties
Most of the river rock Is sold in Europe.
1t is officially stated that notwith-
standing the comparatively low price
of phosphate rock, during 1887, the
value of this product alone was more
than three times as great as the aggre-
gate value of precious metals unearth-
ed IN the entire south in the same
period
This remarkable deposit is found in
beds on the South Carolina lowlands
running parallel to the Atlantic sea-
board and from eight to fifty miles dis
tant from the coast. 1t is also rough
ly massed with fossil bones and teeth
in creeks and rivers. The nodules
have developed, or analysis, from 55
to 62 per cent. of tricalcic phosphate
and from to II per cent. of carbonate
of lime, with various minor constitu-
ents. These phosphates form the basis
of superior artificial fertilizers largely
consumed throughout the United States
and in foreign countries. The chem
ical working reduces the rock to pow
der of most insidious nature. In the
manufactures the men who are en-
ployed to p ok this dust into bags are
compelled to wear handkerchiefs bound
across their mouths and nostrils.
South Cardinals phosphate mines
are located in Beaufort, Colleton and
Berkeley counties. What is known as
the Coosaw Mining company is the
only river dredging phosphate syndi-
cate that has exclusive rights. There
has recently been much talk of "pools'
and "trusts" among the richer compan-
les, mainly with view to protect the
price of rock. The principal operators
in Beaufort county, besides the Coosaw
syndicate, are the Oak Point Mining
company and the Sea Island Chemical
company. Next January the Port
Royal Mining company will begin rock
dredging.
The Cooper and Ashley river marls
are composed of minute shells, and
their granular texture is frequently &C
compact that the dark gray mass is
suitable for building material. Frag
ments broken from the irregular snr
faces of these marls, rounded by wave
action, have become converted into the
nodules that are SO rich in phosphate
of lime. The rock which is now
extensively mined in South Carolina is
always found everything the mari
Much darker in color than the land
deposit, and palpably harder, the water
rock is found at a dredging depth oi
fifteen to twenty feet at the bottom Of
creeks and rivers that are feeders Of
| Port Royal harbor or St. Helena sound
Land rock is usually mined at a deptf
of five to seven feet from the earth's
surface. 1t varies greatly in size o,
the nodules. Found in clay, mud
or peat, it is marked with the fossil re
mains of mastodons, elephants, deer
horses, cows and hogs not imbeddeC
in the rock but mingled with the loos'
layers. Beautiful specimens of sharks
teeth, from two to four inches long
are not infrequent.
Scientists have been mentally exer
cised to account for the changing of
mari which originally contained 6,
per cent. of carbonate Of lime and onl,
8 or 4 per cent. of phosphate of lin
} into one which shows by analysis 55 Il
: 81 per cent. of phosphate of lime, ant
, from to IL per cent. of carbonate o
lime. In the exhaustive and deepl
| interesting reports of South Carolina
state board of agriculture, it is mentor
7 ed as a noteworthy circumstance tina
3 while the greater part of eocene mari
) in that region have preserved thei
3 constitution almost unchanged, yer
t remarkable mutation is observable Q
l. the beginning and end of she series, i
I the buhr stone on the northern borde
and in the widely removed phosphat
rock on the southern. In the buf
stone the original carbonate of lin
composing the shells has been remove
e by SILICA, rendering huge masses {
rock, that once might have lmparte
valuable properties to the soil, wort
less to tn agriculturist while in Il
phosphate Delt there has been a Gu
IS ions but vastly beneficial evolution.
e Two theories are offered for e
!, planation of the change from carbo
3, ate of lime to phosphate. One of the
J. theories assumes that the fragments
it mari were charged with sweeping
n from guauo beds formed above the
D. by oongregated fiocks of sea bird
l. But no remains of birds have be,
IT found among the other fossils disco
rs cred in these wonderful beds. III
le other theory as to the formation
D, these rocks is that certain mollus
,f have the power of separating the pho
o, phate of lime from ocean water, al
le that through their instrumentality t
n mari especially its upper stratal