The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-07-28
THE PITKIN GRAPHITE MINES
Thousands of Tons Of Ore in Sight.
A Mill is Needed.
Pitkin Miner.


Pitkin Miner.
Natural graphite is either crystal
line or amorphous in character. The
crystalline or flake graphite means
graphite in crystals large enough to
be seen by the eye, while amorphous
means having no definite form.
Crystalline graphite occurs either
in veins as in the principal foreign
deposits or as flakes scattered
through the country rock as in most
of the flake graphite deposits in this
country in the southern and eastern
states. The amorphous graphite de-
posits are generally the result of
changed conditions of coal beds
caused by heat or volcanic action.
The most important use of crystal
line graphite is in the making of
crucibles in the steel, brass and
bronze industries, especially during
war periods, which must be quite
pure, running from S5 to 300 carbon.
Amorphous graphite has many
uses, as follows: Paint, especially
for structural iron and steel, requir-
ing low grades 40 to 500, it makes
coating that has great permanency.
Foundry facings probably consume
more amorphous than any other
single use which is commonly mixed
with tale or other substances in
varying proportions. The advantages
of graphite for this purpose is that
it can be readily smoothed to give a
good surface to the mold. Amorphous
graphite used in making lead pencils
is the most ancient, also the most
familiar to all the people and is
made with a mixture of clay in
varying proportions according to the
hardness desired. Prior to the war
pencils We're imported in large guam
titles from Germany and Austria, but
now they are small Large quanti-
ties of American pencils are manu-
factured and exported to all parts of
the world. Amorphous graphite is
also used in making stove and shoe
polish, lubricants, polish for explo-
sives, boiler compound and many
other things.
Previous to the world war, both
kinds of graphite were principally
imported into the United States, the
crystalline from Ceylon and the
amorphous from Mexico and Canada
During the war, our government
called for graphite and two mines of
it were opened up and quipped in
Pitkin at cost of thousands. In
one of the mines which has fair
depth, high grade 80 to 900 which
equals any amorphous graphite in
the world has been produced and
shipped, and in the other mine very
large vein, 25 feet of ore in width, is
showing in the crosscut on the vein
running a little lower in graphite
carbon. These are the Ethiopian and
Avoca Virginia mines which can pro-
duce thousands of tons annually Of
both high grade and mill ore as de-
sired.
Graphite, molybdenum and tung-
sten are all war materials and as these
are in competition with cheap for
eign labor to supply the American
demands, tariff duty of 1919 is now
proposed in the new general tariff bill
now pending in the House of Repre-
sentatives at Washington. This will
be quite help to the American
miners and mines.
Crude graphite ore as it comes
from the ground cannot be used very
extensively, but must be either
ground fine or refined to raise the
grade according to its various uses.
AS stated, there are graphite
mines here which can produce thous-
ands of tons annually, undoubtedly
for a life time. What is needed is
the price of mill to put the raw
material in condition for the con-
sumers. With these graphite mines
running right it will make one of
Gunnison county's important indus
tries, giving employment to many
and requiring a lot of produce and