The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-02-18

Pit" three miles east OF Susquehanna
river, on the Mason and Dixon line, for a
distance of nine miles eastward. -Four of
the shafts, of which the deepest is at
the old Wood mine, long renowned as a
collecting ground for rare minerals, dis
close massive ore. Specimens OF ore
from the Wood mine were reported TO
assay AS high as SO per cent. OF chronic
oxide and to average As per cent. The
remaining five mines and one old pit in
an isolated area OF serpentine about
three miles north of the Maryland Penn
syvania line, near the village of Texas,
! Lancaster county, show disseminated or
spotted ore, known among the chrome
miners of that regions as 'brdseye In
the prosperous days of the eastern
chrome industry this ore was apparently
not considered sufficiently valuable to re
(, pay the cost of concentration, because
| there was large supply of massive ore
that could easily be cobbed and hand
sorted and that was of sufficiently good
quality to meet the demands OF that pc
Rod Now that the country is certain to
be short of chrome ore which is urgently
needed to supply the large demands of an
industry that has become vital, the ques
tion whether low grade ores can be profit
ably concentrated assumes new impor
lance.
AT several old mines in Lancaster coun
ty and at three in Chester county there
appears TO be fair grade of eoneentrat-
ing ore. Estimates OF the quantity OF ore
available are difficult to make, owing to
the lack of other than surface indica
tions, but the facts that at one mine /,
about 1000 tons of spotted ore is lying /
on the dumps and that rock taken a few |
feet below the surface at a point about |
a mile and a half east of the mine con I
tains spotted ore of the same character |
indicate that a considerable quantity of /
similar ore may lie below the surface.
Analyses of average samples from the |
dumps mentioned above show 1927 to |
3427 per cent by weight of ehromite in
the ore. An analysis of the chromite re-
covered by concentration from the sam
pies shows 1879 per cent, OF iron and
aumina and 5l2i per cent. of chronic
oxide. The ore, which is nonmagnetic,
occurs in black grains of brilliant luster. !
The gangue is massive green serpen
tine that contains little or no asbestos,
a fact that is of practical interest, for
chrome ore makes concentration more
difficult Fragments of massive chromite
found in the dumps indicate that nodules
Of massive ore, in addition to the spotted
ore. are distributed throughout the ser
pentine. The nearest railway shipping
point is less than two miles distant and
IS accessible by good roads.
As an ore that runs SO per cent. by
weight of chromte contains about one
part of ehromite to two parts of waste,
hree tons Of this spotted ore should con-
ain one ton of ehromite. About go per
'ent. of the chromite content OF such
res can be recovered, SO that after prop
r allowance for losses in treatment, five
ons of this ore should yield one ton of
hromite. According to quotations in
lineral Foote- Notes for December. 1917,
by the Foote Mineral Co. of
the eastern market price
I chrome ore containing so per cent. of
hromic oxide is $40 per unit, or $40 per