The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-06-07
HUNTING FOR MONAZTTE.
A New Industry in the Piedmont,
Section Of North Carolina.
The People OF That Vicinity All But
Crazy Over the Strange DIscov-
ery-How the Mineral Is
Obtained.

The enthusiasm with which the
search for monazite is now being pros
ecuted in the Piedmont section of
North and South Carolina is something
remarkable. Men, women and chill
dren talk about it, dream about it,
search for it, and would perhaps eat it
if it could be prepared SO that it would
be palatable. For two hundred years
the planters on the coast stumbled over
phosphate rock, which had been
brought to the surface, and considered
it of no value. Finally, says the New
York Sun, after the late war, man of
scientific turn of mind began to investi-
gate this rock, and as a result an in
dustry has sprung up that now amounts
to millions of dollars annually.
In like manner gold miners year
after year in their search for gold
along the streams of this Piedmont.
section have been finding in their pans
a heavy yellOwish sand which they
cast aside as worthless. This has all
been completely reversed in the last
twenty months, and nowadays a pros
pector will cast aside fair specimens of
gold while prosecuting his search for
monazite. To obtain monazite from the
in the monazite belt the prospector
sets out provided with shovel and pan.
With his shovel he scoops out hole in
the bed of the stream or near by it. He
goes through the alluviaI deposit until
he strikes whitish sand and gravel.
Of this he takes painful and washes it
out, carefully examining quality and
quantity. After prospecting in several
different places, be is able to decide
whether the branch as these small
streams are called in the south, is
worth working. If it promises well
trial is made.
Contractors do most of the mining,
taking leases and paying a royalty of
from One-Seventh to One-ffth. Occa-
sionally the monazite privilege is bought
straight out, and in some instances two
hundred dollars an acre has been paid.
Sometimes, however. the owners work.
their own lands.
Common, unskilled laborers are em-
ployed to do the work ''Strippers'
are the hands who clear away the top
soil, removing all timber growing
thereon. They go down to the sand
and gravel. The gravel gang comes
next. They carefully lift out all of the
monazite sand and turn it over to the
washers, who get out all gravel, silver,
and clay, leaving a mixture of heavy
material behind. This goes through a.
second washing, and the material left
| is marketable monazite.
The washing is done in a wooden
| trough from twelve to eighteen feet in
length, twelve inches wide and twelve
deep. There is cast iron perforated
| plate at the upper end of the box
through which the monazite drops,
while the lighter stuff and clay float
away. A stream of water flows through
| the box. Expert washers receive ono
dollar day, but there are plenty OF
men who do this work fairly well,
! and are anxious to work at sixty-five
| cents per day. Overseers and time
| keepers receive one dollar and half.
| This is considered fair wages down
south, where there is little demand for
| day labor now.
| The sand is about as current as gold
| dust, six cents pound being the aver
age price. 1t is estimated that group
| of well-managed hands will mako
twice their daily wages. Letters o. IN
| quiry come from all countries seeking
| information aboat mOnazite, and, judg
| ing by the number and character Of
! these received by the geological survey
| from various European countries, the
| industry and the amount of money
! brought into this Piedmont section for
monazite this year will hardly amount
to less than one hundred thousand dol
lars. Monazite has been found in
small quantities in Russia, Norway,
Bohemia, and in gold washings in Bra
zil and i'll the mica veins at Quebec,
but nowhere has it been found in such
enormous quantities as in this belt.
| A Gloucester On. j. company is the
only concern manufacturing monazite
in this country. The value of sand de-
ponds upon the rare metal, thorium,
which it contains, which is separated
from the associated material by very
complicated chemical processes, which
are kept secret from every one except
those who manipulate the operations.
It is then used in the manufacture of
incandescent gas burners of different
| forms.
The finding of monazite is the best
thing that has ever occurred for the
poorer people of the section in which it
is found. Hundreds of day laborers
are now feeding their families with the
money made in this industry.
AMERICAN PLUCK.