The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-03-27
HUNTING FOR MONAZITE.
A New Industry In the Pie dmont
Section Of North Carolina.
The People Of That vioiDity All but
Grassy Over tho Seroags Dsseov-
eFy-How the Mineral L.
ObtainSd.

ecuted in the Piedmont section o,
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 II
If it could be prepared so that it would
be palatable. For two hundred yearu
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, a man OF
scientific turn of mind began to investi.
gate this rock, and as 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
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
hundred little streams that are found
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 alluvial 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, he is able to decide
whether the ''branch," as these small
streams are called in the south, is
worth working. II it promises we'll q
trial is made.
Contractors do most of the mining,
taking leases and paying a royalty of
from one-seventh to one-fifth. Occa-
sionally the monazite privilege is bought
straight out, and in some instances two
hundred dollars IN acre has been paid.
Sometimes, however, the owners work
their own lands
Common, unskilled laborers are en-
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 monazitc.
The washing is done in q wooden
trough from twelve to eighteen feet in
length, twelve inches wide and twelve
deep. There is q 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 one
dollar day, but there are plenty of
men who do this work fairly well,
and are anxious to work at sixty-Hve
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. It is estimated that group
of well-managed hands will make
twice their daily wages. Letters of in.
quiry come from all countries seeking
about 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
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 in the mica veins at Quebec,
but nowhere has it been found in such
enormous quantities as in this belt. :
A Gloucester IN. j. company is the
only concern manufacturing monazite
in this country. The value OF sand de-
pends upon the rare metal, thorium,
which it contains, which is separated !
from the associated material by very
chemical processes, which
Al kept secret from every one except
those who manipulate the operations
It is then used in tho manufacture of
gas burners of different
forms.
The finding of monazite is the best
hing that has ever occurred for the
poorer people of the section in which it
s found. Hundreds of day laborers
ire now feeding their families with the
money made in this industry.