The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-05
Gold Mining in the South


 By the aid of electricity and modern chemistry, gold mining in the south promises soon to become great con- mercial asset.
 In several southern states gold fields attracted the attention of mineralo- gists long before the civil war. Vir- ginia has rich gold deposits and so has North Carolina, but Georgia and Ala bama are said to contain the largest and most workable deposits. In the 40's, a great deal of southern gold was mined and minted, putin these "modern days" to produce gold with commer- cial economy in competition with Cali fornia has been a difficult problem. Experts seem now, however, to be con- fident that new era of gold mining in the south is in sight.
 The Atlanta Constitution of yester- day devoted half page to the gold fields of north Georgia. The writer of the article in the Constitution says that few people know that until the California gold rush in 1849 all the gold produced in this country was mined in the mountains of Georgia in the territory immediately around the little town of Dahlonega, where by the way, considerable Birmingham capital is invested. Dr. Craig R. Arnold, manager of one of the mines of Dah- lonega, who is an accepted authority in Georgia, explains why it was that the mines in that state were shut down. It was on account of the fact that processes of mining the gold until now made it too expensive to be prof itable. He says that today by the in crease of value of pure gold as result of the European war, the owners of two of the half dozen of the deserted mines hope that some method may be devised whereby the 90 per cent of gold dust which is now lost in the mining of every ton of ore may be preserved.
 Dr. Arnold says that it is his firm belief that in time some electrical method will be applied whereby the gold dust will be saved and that when this occurs "all the world will know where north Georgia is and the name of the little town of Dahlonega will be . by-word in the far corners of the earth"
 Up to 1S49, sixty million dollars worth of pure gold was mined and used by the United States government from the Georgia gold field. Most of this immense sum was picked up on the surface of the ground, where the gold strata was situated and in the bottom of the streams. Says Dr. Ar mold, "The vast deposits from which the surface outcropping came is still untouched and awaits only the mind of the inventor to be turned into the channels of commerce.
 "There are hundreds upon hundreds of millions-in more likelihood, billions --of gold within few feet of the sur face on the towering mountains that look down upon the little town of Dah- lonega-and it is in last effort to de- wise some means by which it can be profitably extracted from it's resting place in the solid bed rock where it now lies, that the owners of the mines just reopened have again started op- erations."
 In Alabama, in Talladega, and, per- haps one or two other counties, gold fields are well known to geologists and gold milling enjgneers. Near Alexander City, a large gold mine is being profitably operated now, and it is believed that with advanced science, the time will soon come when