The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-11-02
OUR RICH GOLD FIELDS,
AN INTERESTING ARTICLF
ON THE SUBJECT,
Some Startling Figures, to be
Sure, but They Come From an
Expert and are Backed up by
Facts.


Expert and are Backed up by
Facts.
In late issue of the Richmond
Dispatch, Mr.. J. ]. Newman, a mining
engineer, of Salisbury, writes: In
your paper of the 4th instant you have
an editorial headed Gold in Album
dance" in which you comment on
goldfeld, the Witwatersrand of South
Africa, with circumference of 400
miles, and an area of 1850 square
miles. This deposit of eight blanket
beds, 6 feet thick, $500 feet deep,
you say, contains 1o,5oo,ooo tons of
ore, worth $3.50 per ton, and would
be worth altogether $4,000, 900,
etc.
Now, you are wrong; 1o,5oo,ooo
tons of ore at $3.50 per ton is $751;
| 10000, and if that was the worth in
coin of each of the eight beds, the
area would only be worth s63o,ooo,-
900.
But this is not what | started out to
write.
This country here also has a gold
field worthy of comparison with that
OF the Witwatersrand.
Take the ten counties of North
Carolina in this gold bearing belt
alone, viz. (see map of North Caro-
lina): Guilford, Randolph, Moore,
Davidson, ,Stanly, Montgomery, Rowan,
Cabarrus, Union, and Mecklenburg,
with an area of about one hundred
miles long by about forty wide-say
5000 square miles, or less than one
third of the Witwatersrand, and this is
the richer of the two.
Let US see about this, in comparison
with your corrected figures. There
are not fewer than twenty-five veins
in each county, with a run of twenty
FIVE miles on an average each, making
625, miles per county, or $3.50 miles
for the ten counties, with $3.50 feet
per mile, and an average thickness Of
three feet. Two thousand five hundred
feet OF depth, estimating IS cubic feet
per ton, will make 16,5oo, 900 900
tons, which at $3.50 per ton, will
equal 123,75o,ooo, 700, which shows
that this section is much richer than
the Witwatersrand field, though this
field has but one-third the area of
that in Africa.
Now add twenty more counties in
North Carolina in which gold is found,
and this would make about the same
area as that of Witwatersrand. Esti-
mating these twenty counties at half
the value in gold per county as the ten
already named, and we have North
Carolina's possible gold product
S247,5oo,ooo,ooo, or 246,87o,ooo,-
900 more than the corrected figures
show the Witwatersrand to be.
Some inexperienced people will say
that this is tallacious; will say that it
is wildcat reasoning, and waste of
time, energy and even patience to
consider it. But let US 60 a little
further into the facts.
To begin with, the best evidence OF
the resources and value of this State is
shown in the fact that North Carolina S
mineral exhibit has taken the premium
over all the States in the Union at
the Worlds Columbian Exposition.
To show the extent of the vein matter
known to exist here, Morgan township,
Rowan county, is about ten miles
square. There are 200 miles OF
measured vein matter, carrying gold,
silver, and copper in that one town.
ship. Some of the veins are eighteen
feet thick, and worth $50 in gold per
ton.
The Big Sulphur vein in the Ran
dolph shaft, at Gold Hill, at the depth
of $50 feet, is fourteen feet thick and
Icarries about SIS in gold per ton.
There is one vein in this county that
has been traced for several miles, and
it is from thirty to sixty feet wide. 1t
is worth about $3.50 per ton in gold,
and about 10 per cent. in copper. AT
depth of no feet it has native
copper, is thirty feet wide, and has
$3.50 per ton in gold.
There are hundreds of shafts and
, vein matter in the ten counties, show
f ing that the veins are true fssure ones,
and that they widen in depth and do
not "peter out
This and much more can be said Of
the gold veins. The same area con-
tains copper veins that carry enough
ore to supply the world for centuries,
, and if properly worked, would make
the "Lake copper mines dwindle
into insignihcance. Davidson, Rowan.
: Cabarrrus, and Union counties have
long lines of silver, lead, and zinc
veins, some Of which are worked to a
depth of over 100 feet, and in one
shaft in this county native silver is
found at a depth of no feet in an
, eight-foot vein. One gold vein has
/ been worked 80 feet wide as an open
cut, and is worth about $3.50 per ton
, Many others, from three to sixty feel
wide, have been worked below the
water level, and found to have pay ore
in them. So it is readily seen thai
!. the reasonings alone are not wild cal
, and fallacious.
2 There are over 100 mines in thi:
$ county alone yet every one is idle
= Why2 is the very natural question
= Not that there is no vein matter here
: not that the veins do not carry
enough ore; not that the ore is no
i rich enough to be worked; but tha
the ores are refractory sulphide ores
r from which the gold cannot be save(
= as by products, and at profit, ane
cess at profit.
t Millions Of dollars are lost thus
S but there is no 1eason why it shoul'
be so. The ores can be mined at a