The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-16
MoNAxrrE AND zIRcoN.
Two Valuable Vulnerable Productions
 of the Two Carolinas.

Two Valuable Vulnerable Pr00wCeA0m@ of the Two Carolinas.
 Charleston News and Courier.
 North Carolina and South Carolina
 are the only States in the country that furnish monazite and zircon in com- mercial quantities. Both minerals are mined for the rare earth oxides they contain, which aroused in the manu- facture of glowers of electric lamps and mantles for various incandescent lamps
 Commercial deposits of monazite are not found In the original rocks, but in gravel deposits laid down by pres- ent and former streams. These grav- els are the result of the disintegration and erosion of the crytalline rocks that contained the monazite. This disinte- grafton is still going on to such an ex- tent that even after the soils and gravels have been once worked for monazite, they may be rewashed at the end of year and prove to be profitable sources of the mineral. In color monazite varies from light yell low to honey-yeIlow. reddish, brown ish and yellowish- green. It is lua- , trous, heavy, but brittle also, break ing with a conchoidal to uneven frac- ture. By means of its color and spe- cific gravity, 1t can usually be readils identified.
 The eountry's supply of monazite Is
 obtained from Cherokee and Spartan burg Counties, S. C., and from Ruth erford, Mcdowell. Burke, Cleveland and Lincoln Counties, N. c. The mon
 azite- bearing sand taken from the sluice- boxes Is sometimes rewashed by the miners, bue usually 1t is sold di- rectly to some enc of the companies ka ffna Nlo concentrating mills now in operation in the monazite district are those of the Carolina Monazite Company, at Shelby, Cleveland County. N. C., and at GafHney, Cherokee County, S. C., that of the German Monazite Company, at Oakspring, Rutherford County, N. C., and that of the incandescent Light and Chemical Company, near Carpenters Knob. Cleveland County. V. c.
 Occurrences of zircon are not com
 mon. There is but one locality In the
 United States where zircon has thus
 far been found In commercial quantity
 and that is near Zirconia, Henderson
 County, North Carolina. The ziroons
 occur in a pegmaitic dike, which is
 about 100 feet wide, and can be traced
 for a distance Of about one and one
 half miles. Two deposits of zircon
 crystals have been worked s-one near
 the southwest end or the dlke, by the
 Freeman mine, the other near the
 northeast end, by the Jones mine. Ow- ing to the slight demand for this min eral it has never been systema ticaliy mined. Men and children are paid a certain price a pound for the zircon crystals. Some of them wash out of the soil. others out of the kaolinized | gangue, and still others they break out byahand from the harder feldspar. The | resulting product contains practically | 100 per cent of zircon.
 The total production of monazite in | 1903 was S62,000 pounds, valued at $e4.- ! 630, which is an increase of 60, 900 i over the production of S02,000 pounds. | valued at S64,I60. in 1909. This quan- tity represents the purified sand, which i contains from S5 to 9s per cent mona ! zite. The quantity of zircon obtained | in 1903 was 5000 pounds. valued at | $570. The total production of these | minerals mined for use in the manu- 1 facture of various lamps. therefore. | amounts to s65.000 pounds. valued at | $65, 200.
 A detailed account of the reproduc- tion of these important minerals may be found in a recent report on The 1 Production of Monazite and Zircon in l 1903" made by Dr. Joseph Hyde Pratt | to the United States Geological Survey. The report is an extract from the volume, entitled Mineral Resources of the United States. i903." and may be obtained. free of charge. on application to the Director of the Survey, Washington. D. C.