The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-05-06
VIRGINIA PRODUCES
MUCH MANGANESE
Review of Manganese Production With
Special Reference TO james
River District.

manganese ores in this country during
the past two years, attention has nat
urally been directed toward Virginia
as the region in which an additional
domestic supply of this material should
! be sought. inasmuch as this state has
I in the past ranked foremost as a pro-
Queer of manganese ores. 1t Is well
known that occurrences of manganese
are rather widely distributed in this
, state and that many OF them have been
worked more or less extensively dur
! ing the last forty years: but TO one
mine belongs the credit OF placing Nir
! ginia foremost among the producers.
namely, the Crimora mine. in Augusta
county. Much has been written about
the Crimora mine. ana il is not the
purpose of this article TO attempt a
further description az It, but rather
to call attention to other localities
where manganese is known to occur
and particularly the James river dis
trict
! The commercial sources Of manga
nese ore are four in number. as fol-
lows: % Manganese ores: 80 man
Ganiferous iron ores; 80 manganifer-
! Gus silver ores: 6i) rnanganiferous res
idium from zinc roasting, The three
first named are ores, the fourth being
7 a by-product in roasting zinc from an
ore containing zinc. iron and manga
nese minerals 3u Virginia only
sources and are important.
The manganese deposits of Virginia
occur In both the Piedmont and APP
palachlan regions. and are confined TO
fairly welI-deined- areas as shown on
the accompanying map. The rocks of
the Piedmont plateau arr ancient erys-
taiine and metamorpAir rocks. IN
places altered 10 such m extent tiat
their original character is indistin-
<uishahle. The principal types are
schist. grantees and Eneissts, with
smaller amounts Of states quartzites
and crystalline linestones. They are
inticatelv folded. fautted and meta
fnorphosed. forming a basement into
which ieneonS rocks have been intrud
~. All Of these rocks have suffered
considerable djsiategration and de-
composition. the weathered zone reach
ing a depth OF Iao feet and more in
yoree localities /, is ia this decom-
posed gore that many prospectively
promising manganese deposits occur
Generally The surface material consists
of unconSolidated sands and clays that
retain to some degree TIL structure of
the or &jual rocks. The James river
manganese area lies within the Pied
mont province. and while not as ex
tensivc as the Appalachian manganese
areas within the state. contains mum
erous occurrences of manganese ore.
only few 81 which have been deVel-
oped 10 any extent. Transportation
FOR The ore products Of these occur
rences would. IN the main. be afforded
hey The James river division uf the
Chesapeake and Ohio railway.
! in the Appalachian region the man
Ganese deposits occur In residual CLAWS
ard sands derived from Cambrian. Or
dovician and Sjlurian sediments These
occurrences are, however. largely con-
fined Ia the western slope of the Blue
Ridge. and are found In zones of fold
ing Of the more ancient Cambrian
sediments The sedinentary rocks dip
in general to the west and northwest
striking northwest southwest. parallel
TO the general direction of tile noun
tain ranges. The principal ore depos-
: arm tfrc --eu uTltertatn ny CaW
brian shales quartzite and limestone
and consist for the most part Of masses
of ore varying in size distributed
! through the clay and sand alluded to.
/ The Crimora deposit is typical OF the
Appalachian region. In this region. be-
sides the deposits of manganese ore
there are numerous deposits OF man
! ganferons iron ore. and. in fact. all
gradations occur. from pure manganese
i to iron-ore deposits In which mangan-
/ csc is either absent or present In negit-
gihle amounts.
While numerous socalied manganese
mines have been opened in Virginia, but
/ few of them have produced any con-
siderable amounts of ore. or have ex
! perieneed extensive investigation and
development In the Appalachian re-
I,,
| are the Kendall and Flick mine in
Rockingham county. near Elkton; the
/ Midvale mine. in Rock bridge county:
/ the Eureka mine. in Page county: the
/ I.yndhurst and the Nesuvius mines in
| Augusta county; the Happy Creek
mine, in Warren county, and the Ken
needy mine. in Augusta county. now op-
hcrated by the interests owning the Cri-
mora All Of the above have In the
past produced quantities OF manganese
ore ranging from about Loco tons up
ward. but not all are worked at ths
present time.
| In the Piedmont region the old Leh-
ner property, now operated by the Con-
solidated Manganese Co. has easily
/ been the largest producer. Located in
| Campbell county, and reached by q
branch line to the Chesapeake and
| Ohio railway about seven miles south
| east of Lynchburg. the property has
been operated internationally since the
early nineties by various corporations
In this period something more than 30
/ on0 tons of washed ore has been pro-
duced from the property. and 1t is re-
| ported that the present operators are
/ actively prosecuting development and
mining. The ore here occurs at the
base of the Loudoun formation. and in
the form of kidneys or large masses.
Locally these masses may compose so
to 30 per cent of the ore-bearing layer.
| At otter river. in Campbell county,
| a similar deposit occurs on the Halsey
| property which. while not SO extern
sively developed as the Consolidated
icompany's property. holds promise of
| producing a large quantity OF manga
nese ore. The operation of the proper
ty is now being carried on under a
| lease by John Il. Guernsey 4 Co. of
Roanoke, Va.
AS can be seen on the map. a num-
her of other properties have been
opened up in this district In some
instances the deposits have been found
to be small and were quickly worked
out, while in others the development