T!IF: JlfANG' All'fo'SE DFPOS! TS OF CEORC!A FIWN T!SP!ECF l'LA'lE I A VIEW OF THE WEISNER QUARTZITE, NEAR CARTERSVILLE , GEOllGlA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF GEORGIA W. S. YEATES, State Geologist BULLET .IN No. 14 A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE ~1ANGANESE DEPOSlrfS OF GEORGIA BY . THOMAS L. WATSON, PH.D . Professor of Economic Geology, University of Virginia Formerly Assistant State Geologist of Georgia JQ08 ATLANTA, GA. THE FRANKI,IN-TURNER Co. 1908 THE ADVISORY BOARD of the Geological Survey of Georgia (Ex-Officio) His ExCELLENCY, HOKE SMITH, Governor of Georgia PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD HoN. T. G. HUDSON _____________ Commissioner of Agriculture HoN. J. M. POUND _________ Commissioner of Public Schools HoN. R. E. PARK __________________________ State Treasurer HoN. W. A. WRIGHT ___________________ Comptroller-General HoN. PHILIP COOK ____________________ Secretary of State HoN. JOHN C. HART _____________________ Attorney-General LETfER OF TRANSMITTAL GEOLOGICAL SuRvEY oF GEORGIA, A'I'LAN'l'A, Jan. 3rd, I908. To His E.xcellency, HoKE SMITH, Governor, and President, Advisory Board, Geological Survey of Georgia. SrR:- I have the honor to transmit herewith, for publication, the report of Dr. Thomas L. Watson, formerly Assistant Geologist on this Survey, on the Manganese Deposits of Georgia. As is stated in Dr. Watson's Introductory, this work was done several years ago- a part while he was connected with the Survey, and the remainder, after he had severed his connection with the State's service. The exigencies of the Survey have necessitated a delay in publication. This, however, has robbed the report of little or none of its value; as the information collected is of both scientific and economic nature, having permanent value. I recommend that this report be published as Bulletin No. q of the Geological Survey of Georgia. Very respectfully yours, W. S. YEATES, State Geologist. (5) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES I View of the Etowah River at Western & Atlantic Railroad near Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia. 2 View Showing the Ridge-Valley Type of Topography, in the Cartersville District, Bartow County, Georgia. 3 An Exposure of Weisner Quartzite along the Western & Atlantic Railroad, One Mile East of Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia. 4 Manganese Milling Plant of the Blue Ridge Mining Company near Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia. 5 View of Weisner Quartzite near Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia. 6 Log of Manganese Washer, Milner-Harris Place, Five Miles Northeast of Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia. 7 Mang8.nese Ore washer on Milner-Harris Place, Five Miles Northeast of Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia. 8 View of Cut on the Central of Georgia Railroad near Summerville, Chattooga County, Georgia. MAPS Geological Outline M1p of Georgia. General Map of Georgia Showing Position of Bartow County. FIGURES r Geolo~ical Map of the Cartersville District. 2 Sections S'lowing Structural Geology ot the Cartersville District. 3 Map Showing the Distribution Manganese Ore in Cartersville District. 4 Section of the Openings on the Blue Ridge Mining Com- pany's Property. (7) 8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 5 Section of the Bishop Mine. 6 Section through Crumley Hill Mine. 7 Section through Layton Mine. 8 Section in One of the Openings of the Dobbins Mine. 9 Map of the Cave Spring District. IO Figures Illustrating the Formation of Manganese-breccia. II Section Showing Surface Decay of Manganese- bearing Chert Bed. I2 Section of Pit on the Lopez Lot. IJ Section in One of the Openings of the Hackett Lot. I4 Section in a Pit on the Lewis Wear Tract. IS Section along the South Face of the Large Opening the Lowe Tract. 16 Section along the North Side of an Opening on the Lowe Tract. I] Section across Valley Three-fourths Mile South of Lindale. 18 Cross-section of Valley South cf Lindale. 19 Section in an Opening at the Lindale Mine. 20 Section through the Barnesley Tract. 21 Geological Map of the Tunnel Hill District. 22 Section of Knox Dolomite Two Miles East of Kingston. 23 Map of a Part of Habersham County Showing Distribution of Manganese Ore. 24 :\1ap of Bowersville Area Showing Distribution of Man- ganese Ore. 25 Section of the Manganese-bearing Schist near Bowersville, Hart County. 26 Map of Blue Ridge Area, Fannin County, Showing Distribu- tion of Manganese Ore. 27 Section through Blue Ridge Mine, Fannin County. 28 Map of the Draketown District Showing Distribution of Manganese Ore. 29 Section of Westbrook Tract, Paulding County. 30 Section through the Statham Tract near Draketown. JI Section Showing the Occurrence of Manganese Ore on the Statham Prcperty. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ........................................................ . rs-r6 CHAP'l.'ER I DISTRIBUTION OF MANGANESE IN GEORGIA .................. . Previous Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .................... . Production and Value of Manganese Ores ................ . Uses of Manganese ............................................. . Methods of Mining the Ore ..................................... . Preparation of the Ore .......................................... . Significance of "Float" Ore..................................... . 17-29 19-20 20-24 25-26 26-27 27-28 28-29 CHAPTER II THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS Of' THE PALEOZOIC ARE.\ ....... . 3D-53 Resume of the Geology of the Area ............................. . 30-32 ~~=~~A~....................... 30 Topography ............................................... . 30-31 Stratigraphy ............................................... . 31 Structure . . . . . . . . . .' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31-32 The Cartersville District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-53 T~pography of the Cartersville District ...................... . 33-34 Production ................................................ . 3+-35 Stratigraphy ............................................... . 35-36 The Paleozoic Rocks of the Cartersville District on the \Yest Side of the Cartersville Fault. .......... . 36-.p The Weisner Quartzite ...................... . 36-37 The Beaver Limestone ....................... . 37-38 The Conasauga Shales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 38-40 The Knox Dolomite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40-41 The Older Crystalline and Metamorphic Rocks of the Carters- ville District on the East Side of the Cartersville Fault ..... . 41-47 The Manganese Ore Deposits of the Cartersville District. .... . 47-99 Mode of Occurrence of the Manganese Ores ............. . 47-48 Depth of the Residual Decay ........................... . 48-49 Kinds of Ore .......................................... . 49 Associated Ore Deposits ............................... . 49-50 Manganiferous Iron Orcs ............................... . so-sr Chemical Composition ................................. . 51-53 Genesis of the Ores ...................................... 53 CHAPTER III MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA (Continued) Description of Individual Properties in the Cartersville District. .. . The Blue Ridge Mining Company's Property ................. . The Bartow Iron and Furnace Company's Property .......... . 54-99 54-99 54-68 fiS-69 (9) IO CONTENTS Page The Stegall Property ....................................... . 69-70 The Chumley Property ..................................... . 71-74 The Collins Lot ............................................ . 74-75 Mahan Lot, Mrs. N. E ..................................... . 75 The Laramore Property .................................... . 76-77 The Laramore, Daniel and Stephens Property ................ . 77-7S The Satterfield Property .................................... . 7S-So The Satterfield Brothers' Property ..................... . So The Mansfield Brothers Property............................ . The Lanham Property...................................... . The Freeman Lot .......................................... . The Smith Lot ............................................. . The Heath Sisters Property ................................. . The Barrow Lot. ........................................... . The Guyton Property ........................................ . The G. W. Satterfield Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Smith Property............................... . The Felton Lot. ................................... . The Jones Brothers Lot. .................................... . The Smith and Peacock Lot. ............................... . The Georgia Manganese and Iron Company's Property ....... . The Peacock Lot ........................................... . The Patillo Lot. ............................................ . The Stephens Property ..................................... . The John Dobbs Estate ..................................... . The Blue Ridge Ocher Company's Lot. ...................... . The :Milner-Harris Properly................................ . The Morris Property ....................................... . The Akin Property ......................................... . The Southern Mining Company's Property .................. . The Jones Lot ............................................. . The Dobbins Property ...................................... . The Cherokee Ocher and Barytes Company's Property ....... . The Rowan Property....................................... . The Holland Lot. .......................................... . So So-S2 S2-S3 S3 S4 S4-SS ss ss-86 S5 S6 S6 S6 S7 S7-SS 88 S8-89 S9-90 9G-91 91-93 93 93-94 95 95-96 96-98 98 98-99 99 CHAPTER IV :\IANGANEsE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC Aru:.\ (Continued) I00-127 The Cave Spring District. ....................................... 100-127 Location of the Cave Spring District. ........................ 100-ror The Topography of the Cave Spring District. ................ I01-I02 Stratigraphy of the Cave Spring District. ..................... 102-ro3 Structure of the Cave Spring District. ....................... IO.)-I04 Character of the Residual Decay in the Cave Spring District. .. ro5-ro6 Manganifereous Chert Breccia................................ ro6 Manganiferous Stained Chert ................................ ro6--ro7 .!VI ode of Occurrence of the Manganese Ores.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 CONTENTS I I Page Associated Ore Deposits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Io8 The Kinds of Manganese Ore Occurring in the Cave Spring District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rog The Chemical Composition of the Cave Spring Ores........... I09 Description of Individual Properties in the Cave Spring District. .. I II- rrg The Manganese Properties of Polk County in the Cave S;ning District ................................................... I12-II 9 The Lopez Property ................................ : .... 112-IIS The Shaw Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I IS The Youngblood Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I IS The Scarborough Lot. ................................... IIS-rr6 The Leak, vVright and Peterson Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I I6 The Peterson Lot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... I I6-I 17 Mrs. L. B. Shaw's Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I I7 The Prior Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I I7 The Sutherlin Property .................................. II7-rr8 The Millican Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I I8 The Hampton Property.................................. rr8-I I9 The \Vharton Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I I9 The Manganese Properties of Floyd County in the Cave Spring District .................................................. II9- I27 The Manganese Deposits on Reynolds :\Iountai:1. ......... II9-T22 The Lc:Jpez Property ..................................... 122- I23 The Lewis \Yare Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 The Simmons Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 The Asbury Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... ILJ-I2-f The Bobo Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I25 The Lowe Property ..................................... rzs- 127 CHAPTER V l\IANGANESE DEPOSITS cF 'fEE PAtEozmc Am;.\ (Continued). I28-J4.+ Other l\Ianganese Deposits of the Paleozoic Group ................ I28-144 Introduction ................................................ I28-I29 The Ligon District, Bartow County.......................... I29-I38 Manganese Deposits of the Rome Area ....................... I30-I38 Structural Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I3I Description of Individual Properties ..................... I32-I38 The Couper Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... I32- I35 The Hillyer Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I35 Big Texas Valley in Floyd County .................. I35-I36 The Barnsley District, Bartow and Floyd Counties .... I36-I38 The Manganese Deposits of \Vhittielcl and Cat JOsa CCJtmties ......................................... I38-I44 The Tunnel Hill District. ....................... I39-I-+4 Topography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Structure and General Geology ............... 139-140 I2 CONTENTS Page Description of the Manganese Deposits in the Tunnel Hill District ....................... 140--14+ The Catoosa Mining Company's Property. I4I-143 Other Manganese Properties, etc ......... 143-144 CHAPTER VI GENESIS OF THE MANGANESE. DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA ................................................. 145-157 Stratigraphic Position of the Ores. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I4S Character of the Decay .......................................... 145-146 Depth of the Decay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Mode of Occurrence of the Ores ................................. 146-148 Distribution of the Ore in the Clay ............................... 148-149 Association of the Manganese with Other Ore Deposits of the Area 149-150 Geologic Structure of the Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IS r Statement of the Hypothesis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IS r Sources of the Manganese ................................... I5I-I54 Solution, Transportation and Precipitation of the Manganese Oxides ................................................... I54-I55 Local Accumulation of the Manganese ........................ ISS-I57 CII.\l'TER VII MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF na: CRYST.\LU:\E Ar:r: \ ......... rs8-r88 The Crystalline Area of Georgia........................... . I58- Position and Limits of the Area ............................. r_;S-159 Rocks of the Crystalline Area ............................... 159--!60 The Rock-Forming Minerals of the Crystalline Area...... r6o :\Ianganese-Bearing Minerals of the Crystalline Area ......... r6o- r6r Decay of the Rocks in the Crystalline Area .................. r6r-162 :\Ianganesc Ore Deposits of the Crystalline Area ............ 163- Extent of the vVork and Location of the Deposits. . . . . . . . . I63 Nature and Mode of Occurrence of the l\Iangane:;c Orcs .. r63-r65 The ~\Iineralogical Forms of the Ores. . . . . . . . . . . . . r6s Origin of the l\Ianganese Orcs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 165-168 Lumpkin County ....................................... r68- r6g Habersham County ..................................... rSg-r7J The Fort Property .................................. 1:S9- I7I The Edge Property ......... , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Hart County ........................................... 171-175 The Brown Property ................................ 173-174 Other Manganese Occurrences in Hart County ........ 174-175 Murray County ......................................... 175-179 Description of the Properties ........................ 177-179 Paleozoic Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ;77 Metamorphic Area ............................. 177-179 Fannin County ......................................... 179-182 The Blue Ridge Property ........................... 179-r8r The Polk Patterson Property ........................ r8r- r82 COlv'TfliVTS 13 Page Haralson and Paulding Counties ......................... r8z- rgo The Draketown District ............................. r8z-rgo Description of Properties in the Draketown District .......................................... 183-190 The Draketown Mining Company ............ 183-185 The Griffith Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . r8s The Westbrook Property .................... 185-187 The Tomlinson Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . r86 The McPherson Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 The Statham Property ....................... r86-r8g The Kirk Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 The Folsom Property ........................ r8g--rgo INTRODUCTION The field-study, which forms the basis for this report, was begun in September, 1900, and completed during the season of 1902. Only a part of the field-seasons, however, of each year, 1900, 1901 and 1902, were entirely given to this study. The work was begun late in the season of 1900, and was interrupted in 1901 by the writer's resigning his position on the Geological Survey of Georgia to accept the chair of geology in Denison University at Granville, Ohio. Re- turning to Georgia again in the early part of the summer of 1902, the remainder of the summer was given to completing the field-work on the problem. . For many years, Georgia has been one of the three principal pro- ducing States in the Union in manganese ores, her two strong com- petitors being Virginia and Arkansas. The first shipment of man- ganese ore from Georgia dates from the year 1866, when the total production was rated at 550 tons. These shipments were of ore mined in the Cartersville district, which district has yielded nine- tenths of the ore mined in the State. From the year 1866 to the present time, Georgia has been an important producer of manga- nese, the annual production varying somewhat widely, according to circumstances, from year to year. The ores of rr]anganese are entirely limited to the northern part of the State, distributed irregularly over parts of two geologically different areas, namely, the Paleozoic Group and the Crystalline Area. Of these, the commercially important deposits are wholly limited to certain areas in the Paleozoic Group. While a few tons of ore have been shipped, from time to time, from widely separated counties in the Crystalline Area, no workable deposits of the ore are known to occur in this area. Since the distribution of the ores in the State is divided into two (IS) 16 INTRODUCTION geologically distinct and unlike areas, and since the mode of occurrence is somewhat unlike for the two areas, the ores are treated separately in this report, under (a) the manganese deposits of the Paleozoic Group, and (b) the manganese deposits of the Crystalline Area. Examination of t1]e table of contents will indicate the general outline of the report, a summary of which it is unnecessary to repeat here. Acknowledgments.- The writer wishes to make grateful acknowledgment of the uniformly generous aid rendered by many citizens in the State during the prosecution of the work. To the State Geologist, Professor W. S. Yeates, and to Captain John J. Calhoun, of Cartersville, Georgia, the writer's thanks are especially due for numerous courtesies. The many maps and published papers and reports of Dr. C. W. Hayes in the publications of the United States Geological Survey; the bulletins of the Geological Society of America; the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers; and the elaborate volume on "Manganese; Its Uses, Ores and Deposits," by Dr. R. A. F. Penrose, published as Volume I, of the Arkansas Geological Survey, have been constant sources of helpful information. The reports by Drs. Hayes and Penrose have been freely used in the preparation of certain parts of this report. Granville, Ohio. The Manganese Deposits of Georgia CHAPTER I DISTRIBUTION OF MANGANESE IN GEORGIA The manganese ores occur in two geologically distinct areas in Georgia; one, the Paleozoic Group, which includes the ten northwest counties of the State; the other, the Crystalline Area, which comprises the Piedmont plateau and the Appalachian mountains provinces. The Crystalline Area, as shown on the map, opposite page 21, includes that part of the State, exclusive of the ten northwest counties, lying north of an irregular line, known as the "fallline," which passes near or through the cities of Columbus, Macon, Milledgeville and Augusta. This line crosses the State in an approximate south or west course, and separates the Crystalline rocks from the Coastal Plain sands, gravels, clays, etc. A somewhat irregular line, passing south from near Cohutta Springs, in Murray county, to the vicinity of Cartersville, Bartow county, and thence bearing south of west to Esom Hill, Polk county, and continuing west into Alabama, separates the Crystalline Area from the Paleozoic Group on the northwest. This line is known as the "Cartersville fault." These two provinces, the Paleozoic Group and the Crystalline Area, compose the north half of the State. No deposits of manganese ore are known to occur in the Coastal Plain formations of Georgia, which compose the entire south half of the State, and have an areal extent, much greater than that of any single geological province in Georgia. Considerable manganese mining has been done in the Paleozoic (I7l r8 DISTRIBUTION OF MANGANESE IN GEORGIA Group, to which all the commercially important ores of the State belong. The ores of this area are conveniently grouped into two principal districts, namely, (a) the Cartersville district; and (b) the Cave Spring district. These include Bartow, Floyd and Polk counties, with isolated scattered deposits occurring in other counties within the limits of the Paleozoic Group. Practically no mining has been done for manganese in the Crystalline Area. Fifty tons would probably be a liberal estimate for the entire output in manganese ores from this area. The ores of this area are usually impure and much scattered, and are rarely concentrated in quantity sufficient to be workable. While the ores of the Crystalline Area are not economically important, they have considerable scientific interest. The ores of the Paleozoic Group occur in residual clays, derived from the decay of several different formations, namely, the Weisner quartzite (Chilhowee sandstone of Safford); the Knox dolomite; and, to a less extent, the Beaver limestone, perhaps. The Weisner quartzite and the Beaver limestone are grouped as Lower Cambrian by the United States Geological Survey; while the Knox dolomite, at least the greater part of it, is placed, by the same authority, as Lower Silurian. While the Knox dolomite formation is not divisible on lithologic grounds, there are sufficient reasons, stated later in this report, for regarding the lower part of the formation as Cambrian and the upper portion as Lower Silurian. These formations are described in some detail in another part of this report. The ores of the Crystalline Area show some variation in mode of occurrence from those of the Paleozoic Group. Most of them, however, occur in a residual clay, derived largely from the decay of the crystalline schists, which, though of doubtful exact age, can be designated in part certainly as pre-Cambrian. With but few exceptions, the manganese ores of the two areas consist of the oxides of the metal. In several instances, ores of a different mineral type, have been found in the Crystalline Area. Manganese-bearing silicate minerals enter somewhat largely into the composition 0f many of the various rock-types composing the Crystalline Area. \Vherever the manganese has been observed in DISTRIBUTION OF MANGANESE IN GEORGIA the residual decay of these rocks, it is, almost without exception, in the form of the oxides of the metal. PREVIOUS DESCRIPTION No published reports on the geology of the State were issued by the State Geological Survey previous to the administration of Dr. J. W. Spencer, formerly State Geologist; though a Survey had been maintained at different times for a period of years prior to the act of the Legislature, in 1889, reviving the office of State Geologist. Since the organization of the Survey, in 1890, considerable geological investigation has been done in North Georgia by both the State and the National Surveys. In 1893, an extensive report on the ten northwest counties- (The Paleozoic Group) -by Dr. J. W. Spencer, issued from the press. This report treats of the different aspects of the geology of the Paleozoic area in some detail. In addition to the other economic deposits of the area, the manganese ores are described and discussed at some length. The deposits of the Cartersville district are given no space in the report. Dr. Spencer also makes brief mention, in the same report, of manganese ores occurring in the Crystalline Area near Mt. Airy, in Habersham county. During the past twelve or fifteen years, the United States Geological Survey has done much areal geologic work in the northwestern part of the State. The areal geology of the entire Paleozoic Group, with the accompanying geologic and topographic maps, has been completed by the National Survey, and most of the work has been published in the Survey publications. During the prosecution of this work, Dr. C. W. Hayes, Geologist-in-Charge, has given special attention to the principal economic ore-deposits of the area, which .have been the subjects of special papers published in the Bulletin .of the Geological Society of America, and in the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. In his work on the manganese ores of Arkansas, Dr. R. A. F. Penrose visited the principal deposits of manganese in the Paleozoic area of Georgia, as well as the other principal ones in the United States and Canada. Dr. Penrose has described and discussed 20 DISTRIBUTION OF MANGANESE IN GEORGU these deposits at some length in his report on manganese, issued by the Arkansas Geological Survey.r PRODUCTION AND VALUE OF MANGANESE ORES The following tables, taken from the Mineral Resources of the United States, give the production and value of manganese ores of the numerous producing countries for a number of consecutive years. Table I shows the production of manganese ores in the three principal producing States in the Union, and the total for the United States, from the year 188o to 1899 inclusive. The remain-. ing States mine but little manganese ore; the total output of these has been grouped together under one column in the table. The last column in the table gives the value of the total output in the United States for each of the years specified. The table indicates a decided decline in production for the three principal States, Virginia, Georgia and Arkansas. It further indicates, that the total production of manganese ores in the United States, for the year 1899, was less than w,ooo long tons, while, in 1886, the total output was more than three times the production for 1899. 1 Manganese; Its Uses Ores and Deposits; by R. A. F. Penrose. Ann. Rept. Geol. Survey of 1 Arkansas, rSvered by the wash and creep of loose rock particles from the higher levels, leaving no due as to its location. The train of "float" may then have passed below ancl considerably beyond the limits of the outcrop. CHAPTER II THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA RESUME OF THE GEOLOGY OF THE AREA I PosrTION oF THE AREA.-The position of the Paleozoic area is shown on the accompanying map. 2 The area includes the ten northwest counties of the State; and it is separated, on the east and south, from the Crystalline Area by the Cartersville overthrust fault. It forms a part of the southern extension of the great Appalachian Valley, southwestward into Middle Alabama. ToPOGRAPHY.-The region, as defined above, is a long, narrow belt, in which the valley type predominates, and whose axis has a general northeast-southwest trend. When viewed in detail, it is observed to be composed of numerous subordinate valleys separated by more or less extensive parallel ridges, whose axial directions are coincident with the general trend of the Valley province. This ridge-valley type of topography bears a definite relation to the rock structure of the area. The ridges mark the lines of more resistant rock, while the valleys are etched out of the soft shales and limestones. According to the character of the rocks composing the ridges, and the position of the beds with respect to the horizon, the ridges are high or low, rather broad and flat-topped, or narrow and sharp cres~ed. The Knox dolomite, one of the most persistent formations in the area, and one of intermediate hardness, forms a I For a detailed description of the geology of this region, the reader is referred to the numerous excellent published papers and reports by Dr. C. W. Hayes, in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America; the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers; and publications of the U.S. Geol. Survey. It is due to the thorough and excellent work of Dr. Hayes, that the geology of this region is so well known. 2 Opposite p. 21. THE M:J-NGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 3I plateau of moderate elevation (between 900 and 950 feet), whose surface is gently undulating and not marked by any sharp ridges or peaks. Traces of at least three rather distinct base-level plains appear in the region. According to Hayes,r the highest and earliest one of these plains was probably formed during Cretaceous time, and the period of rest, during which the atmospheric forces were operative, is believed to have been much longer than that of the formative p~riod of either of the subsequent plains. The present streams were revived from the recent uplift and they are now engaged in sinking their channels in the surface of the last base-level. STRATIGRAPHY.-The rocks of this region range in age from Lower Cambrian to Carboniferous, and they include slates, limestones, shales, sandstones and conglomerates. No igneous rocks are so far known to occur within the limits of the area. The manganese deposits of the area are limited to the residual decay resting on and derived from only three of the formations, namely, the Weisner quartzite, the Beaver limestone, and the Knox dolomite. These formations are described in sufficient detail under the individual ore districts, and the descriptions need not be repeated here. STRUCTURE.-The region is one, in which the strata have been thrown into great northeast-southwest folds, from horizontal pressure applied in a northwest-southeast direction. In addition to the folding, continuation of the same compressive forces resulted in fracturing and faulting the strata over most of the area. To the northwest of the Coosa valley, the area is one of open folds, and faulting is less conspicuous. Folds of the anticlinal, synclinal and monoclinal types are represented in manyexamples of northeast-southwest trending ridges, preserved in the harder and more resistant rocks. In the region to the south and southwest of Rome, the structure is more complicated, largely by reason of the folding having been quite or entirely obliterated by subsequent faulting. The structure is further complicated by deposition overlaps and abrupt lithologic r Sixteenth Ann. Report, U. S. Geol. Survey, Part III, r894-'95, p. 553 32 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA changes. I Two classes of faults, which differ materially from each other, characterize the area. These are designated by Hayes as (a) major thrust faults, and (b) minor thrust faults. 2 The major thrust faults are characterized by great horizontal displacement and low inclination of the fault plane. Three faults of this type have been recognized and described by Hayes in this area; namely, the Coosa, the Rome, and the Cartersville overthrust faults. In the Cartersville fault, rocks of probable Algonkian age, and belonging to the Crystalline metamorphic area of the State have been overthrust upon Silurian rocks of the Paleozoic area. These faults bear no relation to the manganese deposits, and, therefore, they need not be more fully described in the present connection. The minor thrust faults characterize the southern part of the area, especially to the immediate south of Rome and in the vicinity of Cave Spring. They are of the ordinary Appalachian type, and have an approximate north-south direction, intersecting the main axis of the region at angles of 30 to 40, or thereabouts. In length, they vary from three to eight miles ; and they cut the strata at close intervals into narrow strips forming monoclinals, which dip steeply toward the east. These faults result in long and narrow strips of underlying Conasauga shale, which form the narrow valleys penetrating southward into the Knox dolomite plateau. For the reason that the two types of faults are seldom found intersecting each other, the faulting is inferred to belong to different and, therefore, distinct periods of disturbance. THE CARTERSVILLE DISTRICT. The area known as the Cartersville district is located in the southeastern portion of Bartow county, about fifty miles northwest of Atlanta. It derives its name from the town of Cartersville, the county-seat of Bartow county, located on the Western and Atlantic railroad, one of the leading towns in northwest Georgia. The position of the area is shown on the accompany map, Fig. I, p. 44, I Geology of a Portion of the Coosa Valley in Georgia and Alabama. Bull., Geol. Soc. Amer., I894, Vol. V, p. 472 et seq. 2 Overthrust Faults of the Southern Appalachians. Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., I89r, Vol. II, pp. I4I'54 Ibid, I894, Vol. V, pp. 465-480. Sixteenth Ann. Rept., U.S. Geol. Survey, Part III, I894-I895, p. 557 et seq. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF GEORGIA w S. YEATES. STATE GEOLOGIST TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF CARTERSVILLE DISTRICT GEORGIA G-EOEG-IA CARTE RSVJLJ~E SPECIAL MAP I E:-i. ..- , 1 "i .. _ 0 -~ At-' Pf> OX MA' i l M C: A N D t::C LtNI\T I0 N ! <)0:1 . I J_ I ~ :~c=- -~-- ___::1-~~ Con t o u r" iut ( tvHJ '..!0 f(oe l . Ed1tion of Aue. 190!3. ::: ~--===-=::::.:..: - r, Mi.l cs =:-.=::=-::::--r THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF i'HE PALEOZOIC AREA 33 which covers more than ISO square miles, nearly equally divided between the Paleozoic formations on the west and the older crystalline, metamorphic rocks of the Piedmont plateau and the Appalachian mountains, on the east. The irregular line separating the two groups of formations marks the position of the Cartersville .fault TOPOGRAPHY OF THE CARTERSVILLE DISTRICT Examination of the map' indicates that, with respect to surface configuration, the district is divisible into two nearly equal, unlike areas. The line separating the two surface areas is fairly well defined; and is an irregular one. It approxfclat-ely parallels the position of the Cartersville fault, and is located from one to three miles west of the fault line, and it marks the contact between the 'vVeisner quartzite and the Beaver limestone. That portion of the district, north of the Etowah river and west of a line drawn northeast throng'1 Cartersville, consists of a rather smooth plain, etched out of the soft shales and limestone of Cambrian age. Its average elevation above mean sea-level is between 8oo and 900 feet. Irregular hills and minor ridges rise IOO to 125 feet above the general surface of the plain, in places. Westward, the plain grades into the Knox dolomite plateau, a slightly more resistant magnesian limestone, whose general average elevation is but little above that of the Cartersville plain. Beginning with and including the long north-south central band of Weisner quartzite, that part of the mapped area to the south of the Etowah river and east of the plain already defined, is a second area, whose surface is higher than and in marked contrast with that of the Cambrian plain described. The larger portion of this area forms the. northwest extension of the Piedmont plateau. Its general surface elevation will average less than r,ooo feet above mean sea, level, with numerous irregular hills ami ridges, that rise over all of its parts several hundred feet above the general plateau surface. The surface, then, is an irregular one, trenched by comparatinly deep and narrow stream-channels, in many places cut through the thick covering of decayed rock into the hard rocks beneath. The 1 See map, Fig. r, p. 44 34 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA northeast corner of the area forms the equivalent lowering portion of the Appalachian mountains, showing elevations of from 1,8oo to 2,000 feet. This marks the roughest surface area in the district. The higher and. more roughened surface of the eastern half of the mapped area is etched out of geologically old, highly tilted and disturbed metamorphic crystalline rocks, whose age, for the most part, is pre-Cambrian. The rocks were derived in part from original igneous masses, and in part from original sedimentaries. The entire area covered by the map is well watered. Its drainage is through nearly north-and-south flowing streams, tributary to the Etowah river, the master stream of the region, which flows in a general westerly course, passing within a short distance south of the town of Cartersville. PRODUCTION The accompanying table gives th.e production of manganese ores in the Cartersville district, from the time they were first mined in I866 to I888. This district has been, from the beginning, the principal producer in the State; but complete data are not at hand for giving the separate production since the year I888. The Cave Spring district, to the southwest of the Cartersville district, has produced considerable ore; and separate returns for the two districts can not be obtained. PRODUCTION OF MANGANESE ORES IN THE CARTERSVILLE DISTRICT FROM I866 TO I888 1 Year Production Lollg Tons I 866 _.. . -- - - -- - ... - --- --------- _. _--- 550 I I 8b7 ) r868 r869 1870 ( - I I87I !872 - 5,000 1 H7 3 j 1 87 4 - - -- - --- .. - - - -- --- . --- ----- ----- 2,40C. 1875- ----- ---------- ------ ------ 2 400 I 876 ___ ---- . - ---- .. -- ... ---- 2,400 1 Mineral Resources of the United States, r888, p. 127. THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 35 I877 ------- ------------------------------- 2,400 I 878 ------ ---- - - _- _ _______________________ 2,400 I879----- ---- -------------------------2,400 I 88o _________ . __________ .. ___ ______________ r,Soo I88I ___________________.___________ . _______ r,2oo I882 _________________________________________ r,ooo I 883 ______ _ _. ____ ___ __ ______________ _ I884---------- ___________________________ _ r88S---------------- __________ . _________ 2,58o r886 ___________________________________ 5.980 I887 ________ --- ___ --- _ . --------- 9,024 r 88t) _________ . __ _______________________ 5,568 During the year just closed ( 1902), a conservative estimate of the total amount of manganese ores mined and shipped from the Cartersville district would be about 4,000 tons, distributed among the following producers: R. P. Morgan, Knight and Barron, W. Keys, B. C. Sloan, The Blue Ridge Mining Company, W. C. Satterfield (on the old Bartow property), and The Georgia Iron and Coal Company (Chumley Hill). Of these, Mr. Morgan and the Georgia Iron and Coal Company were the principal producers, more than three-fourths of the total production having been mined by them. The disposition of the ores shipped during the year 1902 was as follows: About seventy car-loads of the ore were shipped to Lynchburg, Virginia, to be used for paint purposes; between seventy-five and one hundred carloads were shipped to Birmingham, Alabama, to be used in the manufacture of steel; and the balance was shipped in small lots to various parties, in different localities, for paint purposes. The small amount of ore mined and shipped from Georgia during the year 1902 was due entirely to the prevailing low prices, all during the year. The only other shipments of manganese ores from the State, during the year 1902, outside of the Cartersville district, were a few carlo;1rl" from the Lowe bank in the Cave Spring district, formerly workt>c--1 1"' Major James M. Couper. STRATIGRAPHY The older crystalline igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Piedmont plateau and the Appalachian mountain provinces occupy the 36 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA east half of the area shown on the map.' The Paleozoic forma- tions of the Appalachian Valley province occupy the west half of the mapped area. The line separating the two groups is an irregular one marking the position of the Cartersville fault, which is described below in some detail. The succession of formations, in ascending order, on the west side of the Cartersville fault, is as follows: Lower Silurian ~ Knox dolomite (cherty magnesian limestone). Cambrian (Conasauga shale (olive clay shale, chiefly). Rome shale and sandstone (purple, white I green and brown sandstone and interbedded ; sandy shale). Beaver limestone (blue siliceou5 limestone). Weisner quartzite (quartzite, coarse conglomer- l ate and micaceous shale). Except the Knox dolomite, all the formations shown on the map to the west of the Cartersville fault belong to the Middle and Lower Cambrian. The Knox dolomite is here included entirely in the Silurian, although strong reasons appear for grouping the lower portion of the formation with the Cambrian. Tm;; PALEOZOIC RocKs oF THE CARTERSVILLE. DISTRICT O:-f THI<: WEST SIDE OF THE CARTERSVILLE FAULT THE WEISKER QUARTZITE The \\'eisner quartzite is in contact. on the east sicle, ,,ith the Cartersville fault. The principal area of the formation occupies the middle portion of the map, in the form of an irregular band haYing an approximate north-south extension of fifteen miles, and varying in width from one to three miles. It is composed chiefly of a finegrained quartzite, with occasional bands of a fine-grained con~ glomerate, and additional beds of fine-grained siliceous or micaceous shales. Wherever exposed, this formation shows evidence of intense folding, fracturing and crushing- structures, which are typically illustrated in plate III. The absence of satisfactory exposures. aclclecl to the complex folding of the beds, prevents an accurate estimate of its total thickness; but it is probably not less than 2,ooo feet thick in this locality, Two smaller exposures of the quartzite, clue to faulting, are shown near the western margin of the map. 1 See map p. 44 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PAUiOZOIC AREA 37 As yet, no fossils have been found in this formation; but its relations to adjacent formations indicate, without much doubt, its Lower Cambrian position. Specim~ns of the Weisner quartzite, carefully collected by the writer from the different localities covering the entire area exposed in Georgia, were thoroughly mixed and prepared as one sample, which yielded on analysis by the N. P. Pratt Laboratory, Atlanta, for the Geological Survey, the following results: Per Cent. Silica, Si0 2 ------,--------------------------90.36 TitanicOxide, Ti0 2 -------------------------- _ 0.07 A Ir lumina, on Sesq Al 2 0 ni-oxi d3 e _ , ___ Fe __ 0 _ __ __ -------_________ ------_______ _ _ 1.52 057 Lime, CaO_ 2 ________ _ 3_________ _____________ 0.27 Magnesia, MgO_ _____ _________ ___ o. 2 7 Manganous Oxide, MnO _______________________ none Soda, Na 2 0 __________ --------------Potash, K 0 _______________________________ 2 Water, H 0, at 100 (. ________________________ 2 Water, H 0, above 100 C. ____________________ 2 Iron Disnlphide, FeS _ ______ _ ___ _ ___ _______ __ 2 Barium Sulphate, BaS0 _____________________ 4 o 43 o.r6 none o 31 r.so 4-46 Total ____ ____________ -- ------------ 9992 THE BEAVER LIMESTONE The main belt of the Beaver limestone lies along the western base of the Weisner quartzite ridges. A second, but smaller area of the limestone, extends from Grassdale southward to the line of the Western & Atlantic railroad, and is indicated near the western margin of the map. Exposures of the fresh limestone are rarely seen; since it is readily soluble, leaving an insoluble residue which has formed a thick mantle of deep red soil. The formation is readily traced, however, from the resulting residual red soil. fragments of the quartzite, both fairly fresh and considerably weathered, from the adjacent high quartzite ridges on the east, are more or less admixed with the red soil derived from the limestone. The few exposures met with ind:cate a gray semi-crystalline. magnesian limestone containing occasional masses of chert, becoming, as Hayes states, shaly in places. The thickness of the limestone could 38 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA not be accurately estimated; but Hayes states, that it is probably not less than 8oo to I ,200 feet. The Beaver limestone and \Veisner quartzite are both of considerable importance as ore-producing formations in the Cartersville district, since a majority of the ore-deposits in the district are associated with these two formations. The deposits of manganese in this area occur with about equal frequency in the residual decay of the two formations. THE CONASAUGA SHALES Next above the Beaver limestone is the great thickness of the Rome and Conasauga shales.' The main outcrop of the shales occupies the northwestern part of the mapped area. A continuous band of the exposed shales extends southward from the main outcrop to the line marking the Cartersville fault. The southern half of the band, extending several miles in a north, south and west direction from Cartersville, is greatly widened. Pettit creek, one of the principal streams in the area mapped, takes its rise in the Conasauga shales in the vicinity of Warford cross-roads, some ten miles north of Cartersville, and maintains its entire course southward to the Etowah river on the soft shales. In lithologic character, the shales vary from even, fine-grained aluminous or clayey rocks, to somewhat massive siliceous limestones, with the aluminous type prevailing. Numerous exposures show layers of thin-bedded limestone with the shales. In color the shales vary from light drab and yellow to dark slaty blue; but, as a whole, they are best described as olive shales. The weathered shale is usually tinted red, of a much lighter shade than the deep red soils of the limestone; and the residual product from the two formations is easily distinguished. The shales are usually exposed at the surface as slight anticlinal folds or arches, breaking through the magnesi~n limestone of the Kn~x formation, and are otherwise much fractured and crushed from the effects of long continued and intense compression. The thickness of the Conasauga formation is between 1,500 and 3,000 feet. 1 Oostanaula shales of Spencer. THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 39 The following analyses give a general idea of the chemical composition of the Middle Cambrian shales in this area. I Per Cent. Silica, Si0 55-02 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Alumina, Iron Sesq Al 0 ui - 2 ox i d3 e , _ ___ Fe __ 0 _ __ __ _ ---_____ _ _ _ 23 21.02 5-00 Iron Protoxide, FeO __________ ... __ .. _ I. 54 Magnesia, MgO _____ . ________ .. ____ _ 2.32 Lime, CaO ______ .. _________ . r.6o Soda, N.a 0 ___________ -_- _---- -- -2 o.8r Potash, K 2 0 __ . ___ . . - . - - ---- - - - - 3 19 Water, H 2 0 at 1!0 C. (hygroscopic)_ 2-44 Water, H 2 0 above II0 C (combined)_ Titanic Oxide, Ti0 ______________ _ 2 Phosphorus Manganous Pentoxide, P Oxide, MnO _2 _0_5_______________ - _ 5.65 0.65 0.06 trace Barium Oxide,BaO _____________ _ 0.04 Strontium Oxide, SrO _____________ _ trace Lithia, Li 2 0 ______ ------------ ----- 0.03 Sulphur Tri-oxide, S0 _____________ _ Chlorine, CL _________3______ . ___ ___ 0.02 trace Carbon Dioxide, C0 2 ______________ o.83 Carbonaceous Matter--------------- 0.32 TotaL _____ - __________ -------- 100.54 II Per Cent. 52.82 26 17 9-46 r.o8 trace 0.20 2.71 0.23 7-00 I. Middle Cambrian Shales. Coosa Valley, near Blaine, Cherokee county, Alabama. H. N. Stokes, analyst. Bulletin No. r68, U. S. Geol. Survey, rgoo, p. 283. II. Oostanaula (Conasauga) shales, about two miles northwest of Cartersville, Bartow county, Georgia. J. M. McCandless, analyst. Paleozoic Group, Geol. Survey of Georgia, 1893, p. 285. Chemical analyses of the partially weathered Conasauga shales near Cartersville are here given. 40 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA I Per Cent. Silica, Si0 (free sand) ____________ . 2 Silica, Si0 2 (combined)_________ Alumina, Al 0 ___________________ 23 Iron Sesqui-oxide. Fe 2 0 3 --------Manganese Di oxide, l\InO 2 __ _ _ _ _ _ _ Lime, CaO _______ ___________ 62.30 9.30 rr.so 5-59 o.6o none Magnesia, MgO 1.30 Potash, K 0 _______________________ 4.20 2 Soda, Na 2 0 _. _____ -------- 0-35 Titanic Oxide, Ti0 _______ 2 r.ro Water, H 0 (combined) _______ . 3.80 2 Water, H 0 (hygroscopir:) __ _________ o.r6 2 Total___ ____ ___ _______ roo.rg II Per Cent. 39-20 I9 40 r8.o5 8.31 none r.55 463 0-33 0.68 7.6o 0-40 roo.r5 I. Light-colored hydromica shale on the ridge above the Etowah iron bridge south of Cartersville. On the border of the metamorphic zone: Paleozoic Group, Geol. Survey of Georgia, r893, p. 284. ]. W. Spencer. (McCandless, analyst). II. Light-red shale in the valley, one mile southwest of Cartersville. Paleozoic Group, Geol. Survey of Georgia, r8y3, p. 284. ]. W. Spencer. (McCandless, analyst). THE KNOX DOLOMITE The Knox dolomite lies next above the Conasauga shales. The lower beds are probably Cambrian; but, owing to the paucity of fossils in it and the striking uniformity in lithologic character, the entire formation is here classed as Silurian. Hayes says: "From the few fossils which have been found it appears probable that a transition from the Cambrian to Silurian occurs in the lower third of the formation, but it is generally impossible to determine this line of division."' It is the most uniform and persistent one of the southern Appalachian terranes. It is a massively bedded, partially crystalline, gray magnesian limestone containing abundant nodules and layers of chert or flint. On weathering of the dolomite, the removal, by solution, of the soluble calcium and magnesium carbonates leaves the limestone surface prevailingly covered with a heavy mantle of insoluble siliceous clay abundantly admixed with chert fragments and masses. The I Geologic Atlas of the United States. Rome Fvlio, U.S. Geol. Survey, 1902, p. 3. THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 41 residual clay is usually of light color, containing only a limited quantity of iron oxide. The proportion of clay to chert varies; but the percentage of chert is always large. It is by means of its residual material, especially the- chert nodules and masses, that the Knox dolomite can be traced, for it is seldom exposed except along some of the streams. The Knox dolomite has an estimated thickness of 3,000 to s,ooo feet. As a producer of manganese ores, the Knox dolomite is perhaps of less importance in the immediate Cartersville district, than either the Beaver limestone or the Weisner quartzite. It is, however, of great importance as an ore-producer over many parts of the . Paleozoic area beyond the limits of the Cartersville district. In these adjacent regions, it is intimately associated with extensive deposits of iron ore, bauxite and manganese. Numerous chemical analyses have been made of the Knox dolomite from samples of the rock collected from many localities in Georgia. The analyses available show its composition to vary within the following limits:- Silica, Si0 2 __ ----------- ___ 375 to 7-25 Per cent. .II\lumsina, ~12C?d3 __ F_____O___ } I-24 to ron e, e ~esqui-OXl 2 3 __ I.J6 " " Lime, Magne CaC0 sia, M 3 g -C0 - ----------- _____________ 3407 -36.32 3 to 5344 to 5574 " " ",, THE OLDER CRYSTALLINE AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS OF THE CARTERSVILLE DISTRICT ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE CARTERS- VILLE FAULT In this area, several types of crystalline metamorphic rocks are represented, which show considerable variety in composition and age. Of these, the Corbin granite area, which occupies the middle ~astern portion of the map, is the most extensive. As mapped, this granite mass is a roughly oval-shaped area extending from. Stamp Creek P. 0. on the north side, to the line of the Western & Atlantic railroad on the south, and continuing eastward into Cherokee county. The granite is a .coarse-grained porphyritic rock presenting a distinct augen-gneiss facies in the border portion. It is composed of large microcline phenocrysts, embedded in a ground-mass of blue quartz, plagioclase, augite and mica. 42 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA Its chemical composition is shown in the following analysis made in the laboratory of the U. S. Geological Survey by Dr. H. N. Stokes, I of specimens collected by Mr. A. H. Brooks, of the same Survey, one mile east of Rowland, Bartow county, Georgia: - Per cent. Silica, Si02 ~--~----------- ------ -~~------- ____ 67.98 Alumina, Al 2 0 3 ----------------------~------- 14.84 Iron I ron Sesqui-oxide Protoxide, F , e Fe 20 O ____ 3__~_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-__-_--_-_-_--_-_-_~~_ r.oo 3 r 5 Magnesia, MgO _____________________ ~ ~ -~ -~-- 0.91 Lime, CaO __________________________________ 2-I7 Soda, Na 20 __________________________________ 2.66 Potash, K 20______ ______ --------------- - 4.76 Water, H 20 at rro0 ------------------------- o.r4 Water, H 20 above !!0 __ ~---------~--------- 0-49 Titanic Oxide, Ti0 2 ____ -~------------ ______ o.84 Phosphorus Pentoxide, P 20 5 _____ _________ _ ___ _ 0-34 Manganous Oxide, MnO ___________________ ~ trace Baryta, BaO ______________ . ____________ ~ _____ o. 20 Strontia, SrO ___~----------------------------~- trace SLuitlhpihau, rL, is2_0__-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_~_-_~___--_-_-_~________.____________ tora.oc8e Chlorine, CL ___ -------~---------------------trace Fluorine,F -----~---------~---------------~-trace Carbon, C (Graphite) ________________________ o.2r Total _____ ----------------------------- 9977 Mr. Brooks has given the following petrographic data on the granite from this locality: "Contains microcline, some plagioclase, abundant pyroxene partly altered into chiefly uralite and chlorite, some biotite with frequent inclusions of rutile, much blue vitreous quartz, apatite, zircon and magnetite." 2 In places, the border portion of the granite area, is surrounded by a coarse feldspathic conglomerate, the mineral constituents of which were clearly derived from the granite mass, since the microcline and blue quartz of the granite enter largely into the composition of the conglomerate. In other places, the border portion of the granite is in contact with a series of black graphitic slates. As yet, I Bulletin No. 168, U. S. GeoL Survey, 1900, p. 55 l Bulletn No. 168, C. S. GeoL Survey, 1900, p. 55 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 43 fossils are unknown in the conglomerates and slates; and, on account of their appearance of extreme age, Hayes has grouped them as Algonkian (Ocoee). I The Ocoee series has its greatest develop ment in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. To the south of the Corbin granite area, the conglomerates and slates increase in metamorphism, and apparently pass into gneisses and schists, whose origin, whether igneous or sedimentary, is unknown. The extreme southeastern corner of the mapped area,2 comprises narrow belts of granite and gneiss, and amphibolite schist. According to Hayes,I both diabase and diorite are represented in the area. Diorite is thought to be the most common type of rock, now altered, for the most part, into the amphibolite schist of the area. STRUCTURE The structural features of the Cartersville district are of economic as well as of scientific importance; since some of the oredeposits, at least, are intimately associated with certain structural lines. The three sections, rep~oduced below, and indicated on the map/ by the lines A A', B B' and C C', give an excellent idea of the structural relations of the rocks included within the limits of the mapped area. The area has been one of prolonged and intense compression exerted in a northwest-southeast direction.. As a result of this intense metamorphic action, the rocks are profoundly altered, and those which were originally entirely unlike have been so changed, that frequently the products are scarcely, if at all, distinguishable at present. The rocks on the east side of the fault line have been mashed and squeezed, and the slaty and schistose structures are strongly developed; while the rocks on the west side of the fault have been complexly folded and fractured. The Knox dolomite and the Weisner quartzite resisted folding to a greater degree than the Conasauga formation, on account of their more massive character. Field study indicates, that the Knox dolomite was more resistant than the Weisner quartzite. The beds of the latter are thrown into numerous irregular folds; and, from its crushed and brecciated condition in I Geological Relations of the Iron Ores in the Cartersville District, Georgia : Trans. Amer. Inst. M. E., 1901, Vol. 30, p. 408. 2 See Fig. I p. 44 Fig. I LEGEND Knox Dolomite ~ Conasaut~a and Rome Shale ~ Beaver Limestone ~ ~ Weisner Quartzite Ocoee Conglomerate 5late&Schist ~~ ~ Amphibolite Schist [Z] Fault Geological Map of the Cartersville District, Bartow County, Georgia. (After C. w. Hayes. (44) Fig. 2 c c' PALEOZOIC \ PRE-PALEOZOIC Sections on Lines Indicated in Fig. r, Showing Geological Structure of the Cartersville District. (After C. W. Hnyes ) Scale, Horizontal and Vertical, I Inch=s,ooo Feet. 46 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA many places, it was presumably faulted; although the character of the outcrops probably do not admit of the location and tracing of the iaults in the field. The conditions along this faulted and crushed zone must have been at the time especially favorable to increased chemical action. In places, the quartzite is rendered spongy and porous in texture, and the cavities are filled with hydrous yellow oxide of iron, ocher; and, in some cases, a lining of small quartz crystals, indicating the solvent and precipitating powers of the circulating waters. On the east side of the fault, the granite area, while considerably squeezed and foliated in places, resisted the dynamic forces to a greater degree than did the associated sedimentaries of the Crystalline Area, as is indicated in the well developed slaty cleavage and schistose structure. The Cartersville fault enters northwest Georgia to the east of Cohutta Springs in Murray county; and its position is marked by an irregular north-south line, to within a few miles east of Cartersville, where it passes around the limestone and quartzite of the Lower Cambrian, as a distinct southwest embayment from Cartersville; thence it trends in a generally westward line into Alabama. In the Cartersville district, the line of contact is marked by the slates of the Ocoee series on the east side, with the Cambrian shales on the west side. The plane of contact has thus been observed at several places. Where observed, the fault plane is marked by a breccia zone several feet across, composed of fragments derived from the formations on the two sides. The older crystalline metamorphic rocks on the east, forming the upthrow side, indicate scarcely more alteration immediately at the contact than away from it; while the Paleozoic sediments of the downthrow side invariably show more intense folding and brecciation at the fault, than at some distance away from it. The fault plane has a low eastward dip, varying from 5o to 20 o, conforming in a general way to the bedding planes of the rocks. This fault is one of the principal major thrustfaults of the southern Appalachians; and it is the largest one in northwest Georgia. THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 47 THE MANGANESE ORE DEPOSITS OF THE CARTERSVILLE DISTRICT MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF THE MANGANESE ORES The Manganese ores occur embedded in the heavy mantle of residual clays derived from the decay of the Beaver limestone and Weisner quartzite (Chilhowee sandstone of Safford); and the ores have nearly equal distribution in the decay derived from the two formations. The residual decay derived from the two formations is, in the case of the Weisner quartzite, composed of light-gray to yellow colored siliceous clay, more or 1ess admixed with angular fragments of the partially decayed quartzite. That of the Beaver limestone consists of a deep-red clay admixed with some chert fragments; and, along and near its eastern contact with the quartzite ridges, additional fragments of the latter rock. Chocolate-brown and black clays (umber), stained with the manganese oxide, are common to the area. The quartzite fragments are frequently in an advanced stage of disintegration, sometimes forming a mass of incoherent white quartz grains easily dug out with the finger. At other times, the quartz fragments readily crumble into sand under the gentlest pressure of the hand. Still, others, mingled with the clay, have only been slightly discolored, and are otherwise apparently as hard and firm as the fresh quartzite. The harder fragments are often cemented by manganese oxide, which forms a distinct manganiferous quartzite breccia. The ore is distributed through the clay in irregular small pockets, rarely in distinct beds; in the form of veins and stringers penetrating the clay in an irregular manner; and as concretions or nodules of various sizes and shapes, from masses weighing several tons to small disseminated grains scattered through the clay. At times, the ore distribution in the clays conforms, in a general way, to the bedding of the enclosing material; more often, however, this is obscured and the ore-bodies are seen penetrating and cutting the clay indiscriminately. The character of the ore distribution through the clay has, as will be seen later, an important bearing on the occurrence of the ore in the original fresh rock. The ore-bearing pockets vary much in number and size, being comparatively close together in some places, and some distance apart 48 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA in others, as much as a hundred feet and more in .extreme cases. The pockets vary in size from mere nests to bodies six or more feet thick, and more than thirty feet long. They may, in extreme cases, yield hundreds of tons of the ore, more frequently, however, much less; and they are composed of both the massive and the nod1Jlar partially crystalline ore. They are sometimes composed of solid ore, though usually they are composed of numerous nodules somewhat closely assembled in the enclosing clay. The pockets and lenticular masses, resembling at times true beds, are usually disconnected; but they are f.requently connected by small stringers and veins of the ore. In this mode of occurrence, the ore is necessarily mixed with more or less clay and siliceous fragments, and invariably some included silica, from all of which the ore is freed and cleansed by screening, washing and jigging, a process described in some detail in a subsequent part of this report. The proportion of clay to ore is usually larger than in the closely associated brown iron-ore deposits of the district. Somewhat extensive accumulations of a finely divided black manganese powder, probably a mixture of the various oxides of manganese, are scattered through the clays. These are occasionally of sufficient purity to be carefully taken out and shipped without attempting to cleanse it. More often the ore is partially or completely crystalline and of a dark-blue color. The manganese ore of the Cartersville district is prevailingly more crystalline, than that of any other section of the Paleozoic area of Georgia. The workings are usually confined to the tops and slopes of the quartzite and limestone ridges; less often are they to be found in the valley bottoms. Surface indications may occur in the form of concretions or nodules, and as broken fragments and small grains and granules of the ore strewn or scattered over the surface; or, as a clay coloring, forming a chocolate tinted clay, due probably to the finely disseminated earthy particles of the ore tlirough the clay, known as umber. D(PTH OF THB RESIDUAL Dl(CAY The clay, in which the manganese ores occur, represents the weathered product of the surface decay of the original rock in situ. ' ~-~ Mnngnnese Map of the Cartersville District, Georgia, Showing the Distribution of the Manganese Depo;,its, by Thomas L. Watson, Based on the Cartersville Topographic Sheet, U. S. Geological Survey. THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 49' The depth of the rock decay varies greatly. It is dependent, other things being equal, on the character of the rock and on the attitude of tqe rock-strata. In the Cartersville rlistrict, the quartzite has: been much broken and crushed, and is thrown into a series of narrow, more or less steep folds or ridges.. The top and slopes of the ridges, as well as the valley bottoms, are covered to some depth with the quartzite decay. It is not uncommon, however, to find reefs of the hard fresh rock occupying areq.s along the ridge crests in the residual decay. In several places, shafts have penetrated to a depth of several hundred feet without piercing the bed-rock. Depths of one hundred feet and more are common in the district. It follows from this, that the depth of the residual decay is considerable, and represents a continnecl exposure of the rocks to the attack of the atmospheric agencies through a long time interval. KINDS OF ORE Only the oxides of manganese occur in the Cartersville district.. Of these, pyrolusite and psilomelane greatly predominate, with some manganite and braui1ite, and much of the earthy oxide, wad. These can not always be separated; but they usually occur admixed in varying proportions. With the exception of the wad, the ore is usually either partially or wholly crystalline, with druses of minute crystals of pyrolusite abundant through the masses, and is of dark steel-blue color; and the nodular type nearly always displays the complete or partial layered or concentric structure, characteristic of concretionary masses. ASSOC!ATED ORE DEPOSITS Extensive deposits of brown iron-ore, gray or specular hematites. yellow ocher, and, to a less extent, barite (heavy spar) and bauxite occur intimately associated with the manganese deposits in the Cartersville district. Of these, the deposits of iron-ore and yellow ocher have been extensively worked, and the district is one of the principal producers of these ores in the State. Yellow ocher is. mined only in the Cartersville district, limiting- the entire production, 5c\ 'I'll/:' JL-JNCAlVJ:'Sl:' DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC /lRHA in the State to this area. The deposits of bauxite and barite are of minor importance; only; since the former is but sparingly found near the limits of the district, and the latter, while more abundant, is not sufficiently concentrated to admit of profitable working. The relations of the manganese to the bauxite deposits are less dose than in many other areas in the State. Barite, as before stated, is quite generally distributed over the area mapped; but it is not sufficiently concentrated to be profitably worked. Several land-lots, originally extensively worked for manganese, yielding hundreds of toi1s of the ore in each case, are, at present, being equally 'as profitably worked for yellow ocher. The shafts, cuts .and tuimels opened for the manganese are now used in part in mining the ocher, a fact which further emphasizes the very close .and intimate association of the two ore-deposits. MANGANIFEROUS IRON ORES The beds of limonite, which is the prevailing type of iron ore in the district, are usually distinct from, though occurring in close relation (side by side) with the manganese ores. At times, the oxides of iron and manganese are found admixed in different proportions in the same bed. Between the two extremes of pure iron ore and pure manganese ore, occur all gradations in the admixture of the two oxides. In some beds of average thickness, the two materials are homogeneously admixed, giving the appearance of a manganese ore when the iron is present in small quantities, and of the usual limonite ore when manganese is in small quantities. In other cases, beds of iron ore are found encrusted at the surface, for only a slight depth, with the pure oxide of manganese, which, on being opened, proves to be a good deposit of iron and not of manganese ore. Still, a few other deposits have been observed in this district, which presented an interlamination of the two materials, layers of the iron ore alternating with layers of the manganese ore. Analyses of the iron ores invariably show small percentages of manganese; and, conversely, the manganese ores show varying percentages of iron, with intermediate gradations, in which the two oxides are nearly equal in amount, forming a good grade of manga- THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 51 niferous iron ore. These gradations are brought out in the followmg analyses of samples of the ores from the district: - Lot No. 174 1 Per Cent. Manganese _ - 41 980 Iron ______ . __ 16.220 Phosphorus ___ o. 227 Lot Jl o. 171 1 Per Cent. 3h.oo r6.88 0.14 Lot .JI'o. 260 I Per Cent. 25.090 29. I 70 0.155 Lot ll:o. 460 I l'er Cent. 15.260 3925 0.193 Lots 613 ,( 614 1 Per Cent. Manganese 47 19 Iron _________ 10.22 Phosphorus. o.2H 303 & 274 I l'tr lent. 54940 3620 0.034 Lot No. 391 1 Per Ct-nt. 46.510 3300 0.055 l.ot llo. 306 1 Per Cent. 3532 3110 0.063 },.'/1/SfJ' Bnnk 2 Per Cent. I ron ______ 5 !.I/O !\1 anganese _ 2.254 Pl1osphorus_ I.04.) lots 303 & 274 I Per Cent. s6.68o 1.870 o.864 Bano'it' Prottr()' 2 PerCtnt. 52.02 2.30 0.24 ;~11/t Hill Per Cent. 52190 1.520 1.036 Lot No. 465 2 l'er Cent. 5457 31:l2 722 Loll\ro. 575 2 Per Cent .. Iron _________ 51.850 Manganese ___ o.I2S Phosphorus_ _ o. 16S I.ot Jl o. 4(5 2 Per Cent. 54570 0.382 0.722 !.of Jl'o.312 l'er Ct nt. !.450 6o.6IO 0.052 Lara1nore Per Cent. 1.290 56-4oo o.r58 CHEMICAL COMPOSI'riON The few analyses of the Cartersville manganese ores, quoted below. are from carload shipments. which furnish the safest criterion of a just ~stimate of the commercial value of the ore; since single hand samples of a deposit may not be. representative of the deposit. I Private report of S. Albert Reed, of New York City, to the Etowah Company. Published; 1892. 2 Geol. Survey of Georgia, Bul. No. Io, The Iron Ores of Georgia: Polk, Floyd and Bartow ~onnties, by S. W. McCallie: I900, p. Il2 et seq. 52 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA Analyses of Carload Shipments of Manga.uese Ore from the Cartersville District' Manganese 4!.248 4I.630 42856 44308 39893 47080 46.400 48350 '39690 4!.410 40.310 49320 47250 43710 Iron 9100 1.99 IO 491 4595 ro.::no s.6oo 5850 Silica 14400 10.820 7300 1,0950 12.720 low 5250 2.6oo r 1.86o 4500 3760 3780 s.6ro 7.100 Phosphorus 0.109 o.oso 0.139 0.156 o.ro6 0.194 0.277 0.122 0.2[0 Q.I34 0.127 0.208 0.198 0.236 Moisture 2.000 4.000 6.ooo 6.ooo 6.ooo These analyses, which represent the average composition of the Cartersville manganese ore in bulk, are sufficient to indicate chemically the commercial value of the ores. They do not differ essentially from analyses of similar high grade ores occurring elsewhere. It will be observed, that the manganese average is uniformly high, with correspondingly low iron, silica and phosphorus. As a rule, very few of the better grades of the Cartersville ores are injured by a high percentage of silica. This ingredient will generally average low, in those cases where the ore has been properly cleansed. It rarely ranges above ten per cent., and is usually much below this, averaging from two to five per cent. In many of the lower grade ores, the silica averages considerably more than ten per cent. In many analyses of the Georgia ores, the apparently high silica percentage might easily be lowered considerably, by properly washing and cleansing the ore from adhering clayey matter before shipping. High silica is particularly noticeable in many analyses of the ores mined in the early period of the district's development. This was largely, if not entirely, due to the operators shipping the ore direct from the mines, with little or no previous cleansing. 1 Fllrnace returns. furnished the Snney through the courtesy of the mine owners in theCe,nRia are:1. THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 53 The phosphorus content in the Cartersville deposits is rarely high enough to be of any detriment to the value of the ore. The manganese ores are prevailingly charactriz~d, by a low phosphorus percentage. The average in this ingredient for the better grade ores of the district is from o. 10 to o. 15 per cent. Rarely does it rise above6.2o per cent. GENESIS OF THE ORES The mode of occurrence of the manganese ores described above unquestionably place them as secondary" deposits. The manganese oxides were derived from the Beaver limestone and Weisner quartzite by decay, and were subsequently concentrated in the residual clays of these two formations by chemical and physical processes. It is possible, as held by Penrose,' that some of the deposits existed in their present concentrated form in the rocks of the area before weathering, and are in such cases entirely residual deposits. Sufficient evidence is lacking, from the writer's study of the area, to confirm this view. The origin of the manganese deposits in Georgia is discussed in detail elsewhere in this report, to which the reader is referred for a full statement of fact. 1 Manganese: Its Uses, Ores, and Deposits; Geol. Survey of Arkansas, Ann. Report for r8yo. Vol. I, p. 418 et seq. CHAPTER Ill MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA (Continued.) DESCRIPTION OF INDIVIDUAL PROPERTIES I~ TI-18 CAR'flo;RSVII~L DISTRICT THE BLUR RIDGE MINING COMPANY's PROPI<:RTY This property was formerly owned by the "Etowah Iron Company," by which name it was known for many years. In August, I900, the Etowah Company sold the property to a northern syndicate, when the name was changed to the "Blue Ridge Mining Company." The general offices of the company are located in New York City, and the local office is at Cartersville, Georgia. The property includes I 7,500 acres of mineral lands situated in FIG. 4 J c "''''\ ,, \ c I; I Section in one of the openings 011 tile Blue Ridge Mining Company's ptcperty, near Cartersville, Georgia, Showing the Mode of Occurrence of the 1\Ian~-:a nese Ore in the Re;idual Clay. A. Partially Decayed Rock Fragments an 2 TJji; :11.11'\GAAI:SF. DL:POSITS OF THL: J'ALLOZOIC AR!i.l LoTs I IJ AND I 14.- Some work was done last year, under lease, f which will measure from IO to I 5 feet in diameter. These quartzite fragments are usually impregnated with the manganese oxides; and .quartzite breccia, cemented by manganese and iron oxides, is met with, in places. Chemical analyses, made by the Illinois Steel Company at Chicago, fr.om samples of the ore collected by Mr. W. P. Laramore, gave the following results:- Per Cent. l\Ianganese --50.83 Iron _______ 2.94 Silica _____ . 7.36 Ph0sphorus _ o.16 Pe~ Cent.. 53 1 40 1.410 I.J50 0.074 Per .Cent. 47-600 6.50<:? 2.150 . 0.182 Per Cent. 4 r.z8o 4240 JO 8L1o 0.159 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 77 Analyses of specimens of the manganese ores, from lot 472, made by the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, gave : - Per Cent. Manganese ---- ------------------ s6AOO Iron __________________________ 1.290 Silica ____ ~ __________________ ..: __ _ o.6so Phosphorus--- -- -------------- -- o. I s8 Per Cent. 53.6ro !.290 1.130 0.154 A good deposit of yellow ocher extends across lots 47I and 472, and is in close association with the manganese ores. The ocher is exposed in a number of test-pits dug on the two lots. Deposits of limonite were extensively worked on lot 47r, prior to the Civil War, by the Mark A. Cooper Iron Company. Slight surface indications of manganese were observed in the northeast corner of lot 538, along the track of the Blue Ridge Mining Company's railroad, at the base of a steep quartzite ridge. THE LARAMORE, DANIEL AND STEPHENS PROP:F;RTY Lot 506, 2rst district, and lot r72, 4th district of Bartow county, constitute the mining lots on this property. Manganese mining has been limited entirely to lot I72. LoT so6.-Lot so6 has not been prospected for manganese; but numerous test-pits for iron ore have been dug. Only slight indications of manganese ores have been observed. LoT 172.-Lot I72 is known as the FRANKLIN LoT. Manganese ores have been mined from some half-dozen cuts, shafts and tunnels, in close proximity to each other. The principal excavations are all located in the west half of the lot; but numerous test-pits have been dug in other parts. A large quantity of ore has been shipped from this lot. The lot is located on the slope and near the top of a high and steeply sloping quartzite peak near Cartersville. Its surface is heavily covered, in places, with large and small angular fragments of the quartzite. A short distance back of the openings, and on top of the peak, the quartzite outcrops as hard and firm rock, cut by joint-planes. Weathering has progressed along the planes to such an extent, that the exposure presents the appearance of a huge pile composed of large individual blocks and masses. 78 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA The greatest depth reached in mining is in a thirty-foot shaft, which is reported to have encountered ore for its entire depth. The ore is distributed through the residual clay as thin sheets, stringers and small pockets, and, to some extent, as scattered grains and nodules. Stratification is evident in the clays, conforming in a general way with the slope of the peak. The ore-bodies conform in a general way to the stratification planes and the dip of the clay layers, often, however, cutting at angles to these directions. Fine gravel and nodular types of the ore predominate. The ore begins at the surface, and is continuous below the depths reached in mining on the lot. Red, yellow and dark-colored clays are exposed in the excavations, and are admixed with large proportions of the quartzite fragt;nents. These fragments are entirely angular, and are enclosed in the clays, without conforming to the directions of stratification; but, like the ore-bodies, they are found cutting across the clay layers with much irregularity. All stages of decay are represented; from the hard and firm only partially discolored rock to fragments, which readily crumble under the gentlest pressure into a pulverulent mass of white, red and brown sand. The ore is more abundant in the yellow clay, than in the red and dark-colored clays. Back from the main working area, a short distance, and near the top of the peak, a pit, less than two feet in depth, was sunk. The comparatively fresh rock was exposed in the bottom. In this opening, much of the fragmental quartzite is cemented by the oxides of manganese, in the form of breccia. Deposits of both limonite and yellow ocher are more or less intimately associated with the ores of manganese on this lot. A large quantity of manganese ore was observed along the walls and, in some cases, the bottoms of the excavations. About 100 carloads of ore are reported to have been shipped from this lot. THE R. B. AND G. W. SATTERFIELD PROPERTY The Satterfield property includes lots 259 a>nd p8, 4th district of Bartow county, both of which were being worked at the time of the writer's examination. The lots join each other, and are located on the north slope of an approximately east-west trending quartzite ridge. THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 79 LoT 259.~The principal work done is near the basal slope of the ridge, and includes open-cut and tunnel work. Three cuts, averaging from 20 to 40 feet in length, 5 feet wide, and from 12 to 20 feet in depth, have been worked. One tunnel, which was being worked at the time of the writer's visit, had been driven directly into thy ridge, from near the base to a distance of about so feet. Besides this work, the lot has been largely prospected for manganese ore in other places, and some ore is exposed in most of the pits. The surface material is a deep-red clay, averaging from three to six feet in depth, and is underlain by the lighter-colored yellow clay. In addition to the red and yellow clays, those of a white and darkchocolate color are intermingled, in places. The yellow clay is the principal ore-bearing clay, through which the ores are distributed as small irregular pockets and stringers, and as single scattered nodules and smaller grains or gravel. The nodular ore is usually entirely or partially crystallized. It is estimated, that 6oo tons of ore have been shipped from this lot. It is a high-grade ore, averaging low in phosphorus, silica and iron. LoT 318.-Lot p8 joins lot 259 on the east side. It has been extensively worked and prospected for manganese ore. The work begins near the base of the ridge in the valley, and extends nearly half the distance up the ridge-slope. Three open-cuts, of approximately the same dimensions as the ones described on lot 259, have been worked. A shaft, 53 feet deep, has been sunk, from which one carload of ore was removed. Ore, ten feet thick, was found in the shaft at a depth of 25 feet, a three-foot face being exposed in the bottom of the shaft. The shaft was sunk more for prospecting than for systematic work. One tunnel has been driven into the ridge near the water-level in the valley, for a distance of from 40 to so feet. Three carloads of ore were taken from it. The associated clays are of the same kind and character, as those described on lot 259; but the ore differs from the ore on that lot, principally in being of the nodular rather than the fine-gravel type. Its mode of occurrence and association are much the same for the two lots. In addition to the larger openings, numerous small test-pits have been dug over most of the lot, the majority of which show So THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA some ore. The ore averages low in phosphorus; and, in other respects, it is similar to that occurring on the adjacent lot, 259. Small quantities of limonite occur, in places, on the two lots, in association with the manganese ores; but it is probably not workable. Some yellow ocherous clay is found on lot 259; but, as yet, no indications of workable ocher appear. A manganese washer is located in the valley, a few rods from the openmgs on the two lots. It consists of a single log, 25 feet in length. THE MANSFIELD BROTHERS PROPERTY This property is located several miles east of Carters' !ile, near the Etowah river, and comprises the following I6o-z.t:re lots of land in the 4th district, 3rd section of Bartow couaty, on which manganese ores occur: Nos. 402,403, 463, 6r5 and 682. LoT 402.-This lot is situated partly on the western slope of a quartzite ridge and partly in the adjacent valley. One open-cut, 2 5 feet in length, has been worked near the foot of the slope on the ridge, to a depth of I 5 feet. The ore is here associated with both red and yellow clays, but mostly with the latter. Surface indications of manganese are present in other places over the lot. Three carloads of the ore are reported to have been shipped in I887. On lot 403, one small prospect opening has been made, about half way up the east slope of the quartzite ridge. From this, a few tons of ore are reported to have been shipped. The two openings on lots 402 and 403 are nearly opposite each other, on the adjacent slopes of two nearly parallel north-south trending ridges of quartzite. The openings were made some years ago; and, on account of long standing, they had so badly fallen-in, that nothing could be seen at the time of my visit. Only surface indications of manganese are found on lot 463. No work nor prospecting has been done. Similar surface indications for manganese, mixed with considerable iron-ore "float," are reported on lots 6rs and 685. THE W. H. LANHAM PROPERTY Lots 476 and 477, 4th district, Bartow county, are owned by Mr. W. H. Lanham. They are several miles east of Cartersville, on the '!liE J!ANGA.\TESE DEPOS ITS OF GEORGIA J>LA TE I V :\l AN G AN ES E MILI.lN (; PLANT OF T H E BL UE lllD GE M I NIN G C OMPA N Y, TW O A N D A H A LF ~ I l LES EA S T OF C ARTE R SVILLE, G E OR GIA THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF 1'HE PALEOZOIC AREA 8r 11orth side of the Etowah River. Lot 476 has not been worked for manganese; but a large prospect opening has exposed a very promising deposit of yellow ocher. In the southeast part of lot 477, some manganese ore was mined r 5 or 20 years ago, and less than a dozen carloads of the ore are reported to have been shipped. A tunnel, 300 feet in length, was worked near the summit of a quartzite ridge, from the sides of which a number of drifts were worked. Several small cuts were dug near the tunnel. The ore was enclosed in red, yellow and darkmlored clays, as stringer veins and pockets. No ore was visible in place at the time of my examination; but the dumps showed both the nodular and fine gravel types. A deposit of yellow ocher is m dose contact with the manganese ores. THE N. P. LANHAM PROPERTY Mr. N. P. Lanham's property joins that of his brother, Mr. W. H. Lanham, described above, on the east, and includes the following 40-acre lots in the 4th district, Jrd section of Bartow county, on which manganese ores occur: Nos. 475, 476 (cast half), and 534 On lot 475, near the west side, an open-cut, ten feet long and five feet deep, has been worked in a deep red clay. One carload of manganese ore has been shipped from this cut. Numerous waterworn quartzite pebbles are admixed with the red clay in the cut. The ore comprises mixed gravel and small nodules, the larger fragments of which are cellular or spongy in texture. The cavities in the ore are entirely filled with the red clay, which requires very -careful washing and, oftentimes, crushing, before the admixed clay is sufficiently removed to render the ore marketable. A number of test-pits are dug ovrr the lot, exposing some manganese ore in each one. In the east half of lot 476, some manganese ore was being mined, at the time of my examination, from a small cut, opened near the middle slope of a moderately steep but low quartzite ridge. The ore is enclosed as small nests and stringers, and as scattered nodules in the red clay, and is admixed with considerable barytes, in places. It isquite similar to thatdescribed above on lot 475. The ore is gen- 82 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA erally spongy in texture, and the cavities are filled with the red clay. Both ocher and manganese occur on lot 534 No prospecting, .except for ocher, has been done on the lot. Large deposits of an excellent grade of yellow ocher are exposed in a number of openings on all three lots. Prospecting has been more extensive on lot 475, where some ten or more openings reveal the quality of the material. In the main opening, much manganese and some micaceous iron ore occur in the body of the ocher. The capping consists of red and dark-colored clays freely admixed with decayed fragments of the quartzite. The partially decayed quartzite was encountered in this opening, at a comparatively slight depth, less than 40 feet. Probably, as much as 75 to 100 yards back of this opening, and on top of the ridge, where lots 475 and 476 corner, the hard and firm quartzite outcrops for some distance over the surface of the two lots. THE FREEMAN LOT Lot 313, 4th district, Bartow county, is owned by Mrs. Mary J. Freeman, of Cartersville. It is located only a short distance out of Cartersville, on the Rowland Springs road; and it is slightly elevated above the road on a low, flat-topped hill. Manganese oxide mixed with limonite is exposed along the public road, for several feet near the lot. Manganese ores have been worked from five openings on the lot- three open-cuts, one shaft and one tunnel. The cuts will average from IO to 30 feet in length, and are limited mostly to the surface residual red clay; but they cut the underlying yellow clay in several of the deepest places. The gravel type of ore predominates, admixed ~ith more or less small nodules and large boulder ore. A small percentage of the ore is partially crystallized. "Float" ore is very heavy, over nearly the entire surface of the lot. This ore is made up of small fragments, which are generally light in weight; and, judging from their color, they will average high in iron oxide. The opening near the base of the low ridge on the opposite side of the lot from the Rowland Springs road is in clay, exposing a reef of the hard and moderately fresh quartzite. The ore is inti- THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 83 mately associated with the quartzite, filling the fractures due to the crushing, in the form of veinlets and stringers, and cementing the broken rock fragments as quartzite breccia. Considerable halloy- site, in the form of small irregular-shaped, but usually rounded, masses and lumps, is associated with the ore in this opening. Two carloads of. the ore are reported to ha,e been shipped from th:s open mg. On the south side of the lot, near the last described opening, a 30-foot shaft, from which several drifts lead in different directions, was worked some years ago. and six carloads of ore are said to haYe been shipped. The following chemical analyses of the ore from this lot will in- dicate its general character: - Per Cent. Per Cent. Manganes~ ------------------- 38.oo Si1ica ... ____ . ______ . _.. ________ 2o.oo Phosphorus 0.10 42-40 8.oo 0.10 THE SMITH LOT Lot 226, 4th district, Bartow county, is owned by Messrs. J. B. and F. A. Smith, of Cartersville. It occupies a part of the west side of a gently sloping ridge, and adjoins the Freeman lot, No. 3 I J. The developments consist of one open-cut, I 5 feet deep, and one 30-foot shaft, with a IO-foot tunnel leading from it. The ore is of superior quality, usually crystallized large lumps and nodules, and some fine gravel, admixed, in places, with some fine pulverulent manganese oxide. It averages high in metallic manganese and low in phosphorus and silica. Its occurrence is that of irregular pockets and connecting stringers in the enclosing residual clay. The deep-~ed surface clay will average about six feet in depth; and it is underlain by yellow and dark-chocolate clays. Some white clays are found, usually characterized by numerous slicken-sided. surfaces. Only one carload of the ore has been shipped. A chemical analysis of this ore gave: - Per Cent. lranganese _________________________________ 53.200 PShiolsipchao-r-u-s--_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_----_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_.._-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ 3o..3r 4260. 84 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA THE HEATH SISTERS PROPERTY This property comprises lots 542 and 543, 4th district, Bartow county, located along a deep ravine incised in a high and steeply sloping quartzite ridge, on the south side of the Etowah river, less than three miles from Cartersville. Much work has been done, and from 12 to r 5 carloads of the ore are reported to have been shipped. The lots have been widely prospected, as is indicated in the numerous excavations, in all of which ore is exposed. The larger excavations are principally open-cuts, of large dimensions, worked to some depth, and several shafts. The 0re is enclosed as nests and smalt pockets, and as stringers and scattered nodules and gravel, in lightyellow clay, which is largely admixed with quartzite fragments, of nearly all sizes. Both gravel and crystallized nodular ore occur admixed, with perhaps the gravel type predominating. The only objection urged against the ore is its uniformly high average in phosphorus, as is shown in the following analysis:- Per Cent. Manganese __________ ~ _________ ~ _____ ~ __ ~ ~ __ 33.000 Silica ____ ~ _____________________________ ~ __ 32 .ooo Phosphorus __________ -~-~--~~-----~-----~----- 0.329 The excavations on the Heath lots form some of the most extensive open-work in the Cartersville district. Large quantities of the ore are exposed in the bottoms and sides of the cuts. Limonite has been more or less extensively worked on several of the adjoining lots of land. -Lots 263, 265, 266, JI5 and 330, 4th district, Bartow county, have been prospected for manganese ores, and ore is reported to have been found on each one. THE BARROW LOT Lot 405, 4th district, Bartow county, is a part of the Parrot Spring tract, and is within one mile of Cartersville. The principal opening is a large cut, situated a few rods below and to the right of the spring. It was worked some years ago, and, though much -filled with the caving earth, considerable manganese ore is in sight. Mr. Barrow reports that 25 tons of ore have been shipped from this Ss THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA lot. The ore formed pockets and larg,e stringers in the enclosing elays. It was chiefly of lump and massive kinds, admixed, in places, with much iron oxide: Much of the ore exposed at present consists of mixtures of the. manganese and iron oxides, forming manganiferous iron ore. The ore is in close association with deposits of yellow ocher, as is shown in the large cut and in other smaller excavations over the lot. A partial analysis of specimens of the ore from this lot, made in Chicago, gave Per Cent. Manganese _________ ________________ 47.23 Iron ____ . _.. _ . _________________ -- ---- -- __ -- 4 85 THE GuYTON PROPERTY The manganese ores on this property, lot 235, 5th district, Bartow county, were first worked some years ago by Mr. E. H. Woodward. Some work was being done at the time of my examination. Some half-dozen open-cuts have been worked for manganese ore. Limonite, which occurs intimately associated with the manganese on the west and south sides of the lot, has been largely worked. Fine and coarse gTavel. larg-er nodular and some crystallized needle ore comprise the types of ore occurring on the lot. The general average of the ore is low in phosphorus and proportionally high in metallic manganese. It is distributed through the different colored clays in the usual occurrence. The residual clays extend to shallow depths over portions of the lot. In some of the openings, the comparatively fresh and hard quartzite is exposed. Where so exposed, it is much crushed and fractured, and is largely cemented by the manganese ores, forming breccia. The total shipment from this lot will aggregate less than I::? carloads. THE G. W. SATTERFIELD PROPERTY Lot 270, 5th district, Bartow county, lies immediately west of the Guyton lot, and it joins the Dobbins estate on the west. It is known as the LEWIS LoT. The surface indications for manganese ores on this lot are very favorable. Numerous test-pits have been dug, and manganese ores found in each one. Indications are equally 86 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA as good for iron ore, and a little gray specular ore was worked t~ a limited extent; but none was shipped. THE F. A. AND J. B. SMITH PROPERTY Lot 234, 5th district, Bartow county, joins the Guyton lot, 235, . on the west, and occupies portions of the summit, and north and west slopes of the same quartzite ridge. Some half-dozen cuts were worked some years ago, on the north and northwest slopes of the ridge, from which apparently a good quantity of the ore was removed. The cuts are of average size. Some recent work has been done. The mode of occurrence, association, and character of the ore are the same, as that described for the Guyton lot. THE FELTON LO'l' Several prospect openings, of small size, have been made on lot 27, 4th district, Bartow county, which expose a manganiferous iron ore. THE JONES BROTHERS LOT Lot 33I, 4th district, Bartow county, known as the MAHAN LoT, occupies a part of the south slope of a high and steep quartzite ridge, which has an approximate east-west trend. The surface of the ridge slope is thickly covered, in places, with the broken quartzite fragments. Less than half-a-dozen prospect openings have been made on the lot, near the top of the ridge. One shaft, opened to the depth of I 5 to 20 feet, exposes a fair grade of yellow ocher. The surface indications are favorable, in places over the lot, for both manganese ancl ocher. The dumps indicate the usual type of noclu1ar ore. Little or no ore has been shipped. THE SMITH A~D PEACOCK LOT The east half of lot 332, 4th district, Bartow county. is owned by Mr. James M. Smith, and the west half by Capt. D. \V. K. Peacock. 1t adjoins the Jones Brothers lot on the east. and occupies a part of the same slope of the quartzite ridge. One small cut has been opened on the east half of the lot, near the line with lot 33 I. This cut exposes ocher princinally, and some manganese. TH~ MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOICAREA. 87 THE GEORGIA MANGANESE AND IRON COMPANY'S PROPERTY This property includes lots lying on both sides of the Rowland Spring road, and is located three miles east of Cartersville. It comprises the following 40-acre lots of land in the 4th district, 3rd sec tion of Bartow county, on which manganese ores occur and have been worked: Nos. IIS, I?S, r87, r88, 189 and 245. This property has been extensively worked for manganese, and large shipments of the ores have been made. The developments consist of eight large open-cuts and numerous smaller openings in the nature of test-pits. None of the cuts have been worked to any considerable depth. The work was all done some years ago, and the openings were mostly caved in at the time of my examination, making it difficult to see the exact nature of the deposits. Notwith standing the above condition of the openings, indications are Yery favorable, in places, for much pay-ore still in sight, which could be easily worked at a small cost. The clay is generally of a chocolate, red or yellow color, sometimes pure white, and is admixed with quartzite fragments, of various sizes and in all stages of decay. The ore is distributed through the clays, as pockets of irregular shape anf the slope are composed of a gray to light-yellow cherty clay. No exposures of the fresh rock are anywhere visible on the slopes or summit of the ridge; but reefs and bouldery . masses of chert,. several square yards in dimension, are exposed on the ridge-summit above the general surface of the red clay. The ~hert masses are much fractured and broken, and are' usually in an advan~ed stage of decay; and, in places, they are highly stained and impregnated with' the manganese oxide. Several shafts 'have been sunk on the ridge-top, on the two sides of the road which crosses the ridge, just below New Prospect church. They reach a depth of from 30 to 6o feet in the dark-red cherty day without encountering the bed-rock beneath. , Beginn.ing on the top of the ridge, about a quarter-of-a-mile south . of New Prospect church, .manganese ore is scattered as loose fragments over the summit surface, for a distance of more than a mile in a direction north 30~ east. The ore .has been mined at several places on the ridge-sufl1mit within these limits, the principal of which are on the old HACKETT AND HICKMAN PLACES above New Prospect church, lot 822, 3rd district; and, further north on the following lots owned by Mr. Chas. Vv. Harper, of }{orne, Georgia, 761, 762, 763 and parts of lots 822, 823 -and 824, 3rd district, a total s8 of I acres. Mr. Harper reports that twenty-nine carloads of the ore were shipped. This was taken almost entirely from the surface. THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 12 r Tm<: HICKMAN PLACE is now owned by Mr. B. F. A. Saylor, of Rome; it has been mostly planted in peach-trees. . The first manganese mining on this ridge was done on the old HACKETT AND HICKMAN PLACES, lot 822, sonie ddzen or more years ago, and a large quaritiry of the ore was shipped. Two log- washers were then operated near the openings, for Cleansing the ore; and the water used was conveyed by pipes for a distance of two miles. A large number' of openings were worked to a depth, rs riot bcceedirig' feet, confined entireiy to the surface' red clay. The dark-red clay is filled with 'tagments of diei:t, usually in an advanced stage 'of decay. The'bulk of the ore is associated. with the cll.ert iri the forni of breccia, and as broad bands and stfingers, which generally cut the clay 'in a :vertical position. Usu.alfy, the ore is concentrated in the clay along or near the contact of the clay with the large reefs and masses of chert, ramifying and filling the cracks ' I <' ,, Section in One of the Openings on the Hackett Lot, Reynolds Mountain, Floyd County, Georgia, Showing the Occurrence of the Ore in Association with Chert and Sandstone Fragments and Masses. A. Residual ,Clay, Dark-red in Color. B.. Fragments of Broken Chert and Sandstone. Black Areas and Dots Indicate Ore. and fractures in the chert. Figure IP illustrates this mode of occurrence of the ore on this ridge. Breccia ore forms the.principal type, though considerable stalactitic, spongy ore is distributed through the clay as single nodules and masses. The cavities in the porous or spongy ore are filled with the deep-red clay, in which the ore is embedded. The pocket occurrence of the ore, so common in the 122 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA Cartersville district and in the vicinity of Cave Spring, is not observed in the Reynolds Mountain deposits. It is necessary to crush and jig the bulk of the ore mined on this ridge, before washing, in order to free it from the particles and fragments of chert. In the spring of 1902, Major]. M. Couper, of Atlanta, had some prospect work done near the old HACKETT-HICKMAN openings; but no ore was shipped. A shaft was sunk on the ridge summit, on the south side of the road crossing the ridge below New Prospect church, to a depth of 30 feet, in a dark-red plastic clay containing a considerable proportion of pellet or small gravel ore. Figure I 3 shows the occurrence of the ore in the red clay in this shaft. Brown iron ore also occurs on the ridge, in more or less close relation with the manganese. The manganese ore on the Harper lots grades into manganiferous limonite, in places. THE D. H. LOPEZ PROPERTY Lots 926, 927 and 998, Jrd district, are owned by Mr. D. H. Lopez, of Buford, South Carolina, and are so listed with the property owned by the same party in Polk county, page I I2 of this report. Lots 927 and 998, Jrd district, known as the HANCOCK TRACT, are located one mile east of Cave Spring. Numerous small prospect-pits have been opened, and ore was found in most of tl:;!em. Lot 927, on which most of the mining has been done, was formerly owned and worked by Major]. M. Couper, of Atlanta. The work was all done some years ago; and the openings had considerably fallen in, at the time of my examination. One large pit, from which most of the ore mined on the lot came, exposes deep-red and yellow residual clay, containing large masses and smaller admixed fragments of chert. The chert is much fractured and broken by weathering, and the cracks are now filled with the red clay. A single pocket of ore, less than two feet in thickness, is exposed in the pit, overlain by a bed of broken chert. At this point, the chert is cut by thin seams and' stringers of manganese and limonite ores, which give the rock a brecciated appearance. A considerable portion of the ore observed was of the breccia type. This property has pro- duced a large quantity of ore. THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 123 Lot 926, 3rd district, contains one small opening, made in a red, cherty clay some years ago. From it, some manganese was mined and shipped. The ore on this lot is in the form of breccia; and its mode of occurrence and character are quite similar to that described above, on the Hancock tract, lots 927 and 998. Extensive deposits of limonite occur on the lots owned by Mr. Lopez, in more or less close relation with the manganese. They are extensively mined, as well, on many of the adjoining lots. THE LEWIS WARE PROPERTY Lot 1009, 3rd districto, known as the LEWIS WARE TRACT, is about half-a-mile northeast of the Lowe (Nancy Banks) lot, and on the same ridge. Several small pits have been opened and small quantities of the ore have been removed. The mode of occurrence and the type of ore are the same as those described on the Lowe place. The manganese is in the form of nodules and masses embedded in the red, cherty clay. Large masses and fragments of chert are commingled in considerable quantity with the residual clay. Some of the large chert masses have survived the surface weathering; and, though fractured and broken, it is moderately fresh and hard rock. Figure I I shows the relation of the ore-bearing clay and the associated chert fragments in one of the pits on the lot. THE SIMMONS PROPERTY THE SIMMONS PROPERTY, lot 924, Jrd district, is about a mile and a quarter east of the town of Cave Spring. Two small openings were made near the center of the lot, about twenty years ago, from which a small quantity of manganese is said to have been shipped. The pits are in the red clay, which contains a quantity of large chert masses, in various stages of decay; The ore was principally of the breccia type. THE ASBURY PROPERTY This property, lot 1142, jrd district, 4th section, Floyd county, 3rd district, one and a quarter miles east of Cave Spring. L~ose fragments of breccia ore are scattered over the surface 'of the lots, 124 THE MANGANESE DEPOSn'S OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA FIG. 14 Section in. a !'it ou the Lewis Ware T~act, near Ca~e Spring, Georgia, Showing the Residual Manganese-bearing Clay, Which Has Resulted from the Decay of th'e Chert Bed (Modified from Penrose). A. Manganese-bearing Clay. The Irregular Areas Represent Masses of Chert, That Have, so far, Escaped Decay. Horizontal and Vertical Scale: I inch=I8 feet. in places. A few tons of the ore have been shipped from lots 922 and 92J, taken from several small pits dug in places. The openings were only a few feet in depth, and were made sOme years ago. They were nearly filled by caving in, at the time of my examination; hence, the exact nature and extent of the ore deposits could not be made out. No openings for manganese have been made on lot 950. Limonite deposits occur on all the lots. They have been extensively worked on lots 950 and 951. THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 125 THE BOBO PROPERTY This prope~ty, lot 692) 3rd district) is located''on a chert ridge, about one mil~ north of New :Prospect church. Manganese, which does not occur i1:1 workable quantity, is exposed in several openings worked for limonite: The two ores. are intimately associated. The limonite is a soft ore, admixed with much chert; and more than seventy carloads of the ore are ,reported to have been shipped. A valuable deposit of bauxite has been worked on the same lot, within a few rods of the iron ore openings, exposing the small quantity of manganese. THE W. B. LOWE PROPERTY This property, lot I)I42) 3rd district) 4th section) Floyd county, is located on the top of a much dissected, but high and steep cherty, Kn0x dolomite ridge, more than a mile east of the town of Cave Spring. The ridge summit is covered with a considerable thickness of red and chocolate-brown residual clays, derived from the decay of the cherty dolomite, and containing abundant fragments of the original chert bed. As a rule, the chert masses are of unusual size; and, in many instances, they have withstood disintegration to a remarkable degree. The work done on this lot has been very extensive, and large quantities of manganese ores have been mined. The lot was worked for some time, under the control and management of Major James M. Couper, of Atlanta. Open surface work is continuous over more than an acre of ground, with an average depth of from ro to 15 feet. The south and sdUtheast sides of the opening expose a deep-red clay, very dark in color, entirely free from chert fragments, and closely resembling a wash-clay. The clay is closely filled with small rounded pellets and gravel of manganese, with only an occasional nodule of the ore. Figure 12 shows the occurrence of the ore in the clay a .. this point. On the north side of the opening, the slope is considerably higher. The section on this side shows a few feet of a deep-red surface clay, covering a light, reddish yellowand-white clay underneath, filled with large masses of broken angular chert. Here, the ore is assembled as very small nests and string- 126 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA . .... .-:.... ' FIG. IS ....-.:-~ .-:!: :~..... ~:.-::-~! l .. ;;.:~~: ....;,_.: :- o"~.:..:..':.:-...:..:-.:-:-..:..~.~..:.00-.0::o".~:;.:.:.,..:!-....~.1- ..~:.~.- 0 0 .. .-t:.~ ..... ;."':,:..:..;. :. ~ './.:.:., :~-:.0 ... -~ .. . ..' :. ::. ..0;:..';~~.::I.0O .<: ..:.. :.. ::;~.: :.:;;.... ' :_ ;. ~ ~:' :.: : : .. : .... ~~ ..~ ..'1!'~.: ~: ~:. '!:? l ,.. . . . .I.... '.. '.. . . . . . . .. . . ........ , . 0.. .. ..... ......::,... .........:.......:.... .........:..:-:..:.:, ..... . ,: . : : " .-,:. ~. .... ,. .. ' ,, \o 0 . . . . 0 .. f't ' .. 0 t 0 I 0 . . . . . e 0 .. . . ..... " .. : ~ ... 0 ' .... -~:.-::: ~: .. :. ~ - . . ~ a', , ... , . . , .: .. . : , , 'A\ .. ' . , ' 0 .. . .' t--.~. . . . . . . . ~.: . . . . . .'."'I'"I:. .~.~. ,,,:,_,..,~ ~; ... : .. : ' ... , 0 I : ..... 0 : . 0: ~:. . :: \. .'. ~: 35' Section along the South Face of the Large Opening on the Lowe Tract, near Cave Spring, Floyd County, Georgia, Showing the Occurrence of Manganese "Pellet" Ore in the Residuai Clay, Indicated by Black Dots. The White Area Represents Deep Reddish-brown Clay Derived from the Knox Dolomite. No Admixed Chert Fragments Nor Nodules Are Contained in the Clay at This Point. ers in the residual material, closely associated with the chert fragments, as indicated in fig-ure r6. FIG. r6 Section along the North Side of an Opening on the Lowe Tract, near Cave Spring, Floyd County, Georgia, Showing tlie Mode of Occurrence of the Ore in the Cherty Residual Clays. A. Chert Fragments. B. Manganese Ore. C. Residual Clay. Several shafts have been sunk, from the bottom of the opening, to a depth of 40 feet and more, passing through light-colored clays filled with the chert masses. On the south side of the large opening, a small open-cut has been dug, from the bottom of which is sunk a shaft, 85 feet in depth. Numerous other shafts and pits have been THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 127 opened, over other parts of the lot. In most of the shafts, a heavy cherty clay, light in color, composes the material in which the openings have been made. The ore is of the spongy, cellular kind, in intimate association with the chert; and it contains much of the chert admixed with it. This was the only property in the Cave Spring district, that was being worked for manganese during the summer of 1902. A short time before my examination of it, July, 1902, about 30 carloads of the ore were reported to have been shipped. The mine is elaborately equipped with all modern machinery and appliances, including a motor plant, for generating electricity for lighting and other purposes, and for tram-cars. It is safe to say, that this is the most elaborately equipped manganese plant in the State. The cost of the machinery and its installation must have been large; but the amount of ore contained on the property will not begin to equal the expenditure above ground. CHAPTER V MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA (Continued) OTHER MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC GROUP INTRODUCTION Under this heading, are included certain centres, about which are grouped a few scattered deposits of manganese ores. The centres are found over parts of the northeastern, eastern and southern portions of the Paleozoic area. Many of the deposits have been worked to some extent; but, in most cases, the work has not progressed beyond the stage of test-openings. In some cases, no openings of any kind have been made; but strong surface indications appear, which may or may not imply workable deposits below the surface. Small shipments of the ore have been made from a number of the openings; but, as yet, these scattered accumulations of the ore have proved of little or no commercial importance. Further developments, in some of the localities, may perhaps lead to important concentrations of workable ore. The mode of occurrence, association, and the mineral form and character of the ore are the same as those already described under the Cartersville and Cave Spring districts. Followit\g, are localities of these scattered ore deposits: .:.___ In the vicinity of Ligon post-office, in the extreme southwest corner of Bartow county, about 12 miles west of Cartersville; near Rome and Lindale in Floyd county; in Big Texas Valley, Floyd county, (128) THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 12 9 I2 miles northwest of Rome; in the vicinity of Barnsley and Nannie post-office, in the northwest part of Bartow county and the adjacent part of Floyd county, about I7 miles northwest of Cartersville; and the Tunnel Hill district in Whitfield and Catoosa counties. These locaJities are described m some detail in the following pages. THE LIGON DISTRICT, BARTow CouNTY The Ligon district is located in the extreme southwest corner and I 7th district of Bartow county, about twelve miles west of Cartersville and less than six miles southwest of Kingston. The name, Ligon district, is given in this report to a small area covering less than a dozen lots of land, on which indications of manganese ores have been observed, in the vicinity of Ligon post-office. The Knox dolomite formation extends over the entire area. In this part of Bartow ~ounty and the adjacent parts of Floyd and Polk counties, the Knox dolomite is characterized as a slightly elevated plateau with a hilly surface. Its general altitude is under r,ooo feet; though, in a few places, occasional elevations, of from 100 to 200 feet above the I,ooo-foot contour, occur. In extreme cases, the hill-tops rise to elevations of several hundred feet above the adjacent lowlands, or valley-bottoms. The accompanying map shows the general topography of the Ligon area. Here, as elsewhere over the Knox dolomite areas, the surface is covered with abundant chert nodules and fragments. The chert masses are also largelJ admixed with the residual clays derived from the decay of the formation. The residual covering, in the Ligon area, is a deep-red siliceous clay admixed with much chert. Surface indications of manganese ores in the Ligon district appear as fine pellets, gravel and concretionary nodules on the following lots of land in the I 7th district, 3rd section of Bartow county: - Nos. 368 a:nd 369, owned by Mr. T. 0. Ligon, Ligon, Ga.; No. 373, known as the JACOBS LoT; Nos. 346 and 374, the estate of Messrs. French & Tarver; and No. 375, the estate of a Mr. Dodd. Manganese ore is found a11 over the first named lot, and over the southeast corner of the second; while its occurrence has been noted only mer the middle part of lot 373, the south part of lot 3.;6, and the southeast-part of lot 374 It also occurs over most of lot 375 The gullies and ravines on these properties all show loose, scattered ore over their bottoms; and, along the sides, much ore is assembled in the clay. ~o prospecting, nor work of ;my kind, for 1'1;mganese ore has been attempted in this area. "\ number of cuts expose extensive beds of limonite on lot 42:?. The surface indications are exceptionally fa\orable for limonite, c:;:tencling for sneral miles, in an approximately northeast-southwest course, on lots adjoining 422. The ores of manganese are closely associated with the deposits of iron ore; the loose fragments of manganese cover the surface on the two sides of the narro,,- zone. m belt, of the iron deposits. A separate area, called the Rome district. is made. in this report, to include those occurrences of manganese ore found within a radius (Jf six miles of the city of Rome. Greater or less quantities of manganese ore are scattered as loose fragments oYer the surface of a number of lots \Yithin the aboYe limits. Less than a dozen carloads ,Jf ore have been shipped. Practically no mining has been done, and on account of lack of development, it is not possible to say, 11hether or not \Yorkable deposits of manganese exist on tho e lots. ,,here the scattered surface fragments are found. Such surface indications as these appear, to a limited extent, to the north, east and south of Rome. limited to the decay of the Knox dolomite. \Yith the exception of the western portion of the area, the sw:cession of formations in the Rome district is the same as is given for the Ca,e Spring district on page 103. ancl include sandstone. shale and limestone. The formations beginning \Yith the oldest are:- Beaver limestone ________ -------------------; . Rome sandstone and shale ______________ \ Cambnan Co'lasanga shale _________________________ . Knox dolomite __________________________ Silurian To the west of Rome, an extensi1e hocly of the Carboniferous rocks occurs. consisting principally (If the Floyd shale, \Yhich forma- THE MANGANESE DEPOSllS OF THE PALEOZOIC AR.1 IJI tion is composed of black carbonaceous shale and thin beds of limestone. No deposits of manganese are yet knmyn to occur in this area. STRUCTURAL FEATURES.- The area to the east of Rome comprises the Knox dolomite plateau, which, if broken by faults similar to those described to the south, in the Six Mile-SilYer Creek region, the lines of fracture are not apparent at the surface. The EtcnYah ri,er cuts across the plateau in a general east-\\est direction, and is entrenched in a broad and gently sloping valley. \Vhen studiecl in detail, the plateau surface is seen to be much broken and dissected by smaller streams, and is characterized by a somewhat irregular, hilly surface, which is usually several hundred feet abon the adjacent lowlands. The dolomite surface is coyerecl by the residual cherty clay, and the limestone is seldom seen except along the stream channels. To the south of Rome, as described under the CaYe So.pring district, the central-western margin of the dolomite plateau is broken by a number of parallel north-south faults, of the normal Appalachian type. The underlying Cambrian shales are here exposed at the surface in long narrow belts, which mark the position of deep, narrow ,:tlleys, \Yith the adjacent and more resistant limestone blocks forming the intervening ridges. The limestone ridges are irregular and broken by weathering. and rise seyeral hundred feet abow the lnttoms of the soft shale valleys. The Rome and Coosa major thrust-faults pass through and to tlw \Yest of the city of Rome, in a general northeast-southwest direction. The Rome fault is fairly regular, as is marked by the plane of contact between dissimilar formations on the tm) sides. In marked contrast ~o the Rome fault, the Coosa fault is characterized by great irregularity. sho,vn in the strong and deep indentations along its course. In a general way, these two faults are roughly parallel. They ha \e heen adequately described by Dr. C. \\r. Hayes, of the Lnitecl States Geological Survey, \Vho has studied and traced them in detail. 1 Their descripti(m need not be repeated here: since the occurrence of the manganese ores is not, in any \Yay, connected with the lines of breakage. 1 lJull. Ceol. Soc. :\mer., r>~qr, \ot. 11. pp. 141-r.')4. 132 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA DESCRIPTION OF INDIVIDUAL PROPERTIES No workable deposits of manganese ores are yet known in the vicinity of Rome, excepting the Couper prospect described below, occurring three-quarters of a mile south of Lindale. Loose fragments of manganese ore are scattered, to some extent, over the sur face of numerous lots; but no prospecting nor developments have been made. On many of the r~puted manganese properties in this area, a few fragments of impure oxide of manganese may be found on the surface, which, after opening to the depth of a few feet, pass into manganiferous iron ore and finally into limonite. A number of properties within the Rome area have clearly demonstrated this fact, the most noteworthy of which are the brown iron ore deposits in the vicinity of Hermitage, where considerable quantities of the ore! have been worked. Similar conditions are shown on the Bob Hill property in the 2 3rd district, several miles north of east from Rome. THE COUPER PROPERTY This property, lot 44,,22nd district, known as the BRISCOE PLACE, is three-quarters of a mile south of Lindale, and four and a half miles south of Rome. It is located near the inver middle western margin of the Knox dolomite plateau. Numerous faults of the normal Appalachian type, cut at short intervals the dolomite plateau in this vicinity. They extend southward along parallel lines, for a number of miles. As explained elsewhere in this report, I the underlying Cambrian shales are exposed at the surface, as long narrow belts in contact with the dolomite along the fault-line. The shales yield more readily to weathering than the limestone; and, therefore, they mark the positions of valleys, while the more resistant limestone forms the intervening ridges. The long and narrow faultblocks dip steeply toward the east. Figure I4, which represents an east-west section, three-quarters of a mile south of Lindale, illustrates in a striking manner the structural relations of the rocks. Extending southward from Lindale is an exposure of one of the long narrow belts of shale, marking the position of a valley for several miles in a north-south direction. The western margin of the I See page 104. THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 133 West FIG 17 East Section across Valley, mile South of Lindale, Floyd County, Georgia. valley marks the position of a fault, and about a quarter of a mile to the eastward, the shales are overlain by the heavy beds of cherty limestone. The ridge is a low one, averaging something over a hundred feet in elevation, in the more elevated portions; and its surface is irregular and broken by erosion. It is covered, in places, with chert fragments of various sizes, in all stages of ~lecay. About three-quarters of a mile south of Lindale, on the west slope of the valley, and about forty feet above the valley-bottom, a number of cuts and pits were opened in 1901, on lot 44, in the cherty clay, derived from the decay of magnesian limestone. Considerable manganese ore is exposed in the openings. Red, yellow, white, buff and purple-colored clays make up the residual covering, in which the excavations are dug. Red clay, which is the surface covering, will average less than five feet in thickness. The underlying yellow clay which predominates is highly siliceous, and freely admixed with large and small fragments of chert, usually in an advanced stage of decay. The clays are usually stratified, the bedding-planes conforming in a general way with the ridge slope. They thin toward the top of the ridge, and are thickest in the valley. The ridgeslope in the vicinity of the deposits varies from 30 to 40. The ore is distributed through the clays, in the form of stringers and masses only a few inches in thickness. These stringers and masses cut the clay in various directions; and probably, in a majority of cases they conform in a general way with the slope of the ridge, which slope is coincident with the general direction of the bedding-planes. Many of the stringers are quartz, around and along which the ore is deposited as impregnations and incrustations, and as nodules and gravel. A goodly proportion of gravel and concretionary, nodular ore is embedded in the clay without any appar- r 34 THE J1AXGANESE DEPOSITS OF nn; PALEOZOIC ARL-1 ent relation to the chert fragments and masses. The nodules, which will average from three to six mches in diameter, and are usually botryoidal in shape, are quite pure and heavy and clark steel-blue in color, and display the concretionary or layered structure; but they are not usually crystalline. In most cases, hmvever, the ore is closely associated with the chert, varying from impregnations, as seams of knife-edge thicknes:;, to a ground-mass of ore cementing the fresh and partially decomposed chert fragments. The more aclvz,ncccl weathered fragments FIG 18 Cross-section of a Valley, south of Lindale, Floyd County, Georgia, Showing the Position of the J\Ianganese Deposit and the Relations of the Underlying Rocks. A. Residual Clay Containing Admixed Chert and Partially Decayed Rock Fragments. B. Knox Dolomite (Magnesian Limestone). C. Conasauga Shale. The Black Area Is Manganeses. of chert in the breccia ore, on being disturbed, readily falls out as loose sand. The form of breccia ore, usually occurring on this lot ( 44) is shom1 in the figure below. The proportion of ore to chert of the breccia mass varies widely, from the mere film of manganese oxide filling the cracks and crevices of the shattered chert fragments. binding them together. to those, in \vhich the largest bulk of the mass is ore containing but few small chert fragments. From this description, two distinct types of ore prevail on this lot; namely, breccia and uoclular ore. Perhaps the breccia ore predominates. The greatest depth attained in working is between 12 and I 5 feet, along the inner slope of the ridge. It is necessary to fl'scarcl much of the breccia ore; but a good quantity of it \vill admit of crushing and jigging, vvhen the ore can be fairly \Yell freed by washing from the chert. The nodular ore is remarkab!v free I HE JI~riSC.L\'PSP DEPOSITS OF TH,E P.r/LEOZOIC /lRlLl 135 FIG. 19 10FT Section in an Opening at the Lindale Mine, 4 Miles South of Rome, Georgia. from silica, and is a very desirable ore. About four carloads of this ore are reported to have been shipped. THE HILLYER PROPERTY This property is located in the 22nd district, Floyd county, about seven miles south of Rome, and was formerly known as the BoNSACK EsTATE. \Vith the exception of the Couper lot near Lindale, the conditions on the Hillyer property are more favorable for workable manganese ore than any yet examined in the Rome district. Large masses of bouldery manganese and manganiferous iron ore containing chert are exposed over a number of acres. Several small openings have been made; but, as yet, the developments are entirely too inadequate for one to judge of the extent and character of the ore. Several small pits, near by, expose a large ore-body of ferruginous bauxite. Limited surface indications of manganese ore are reported on the \Voodruff, \Vimpee, McCay, Kite and Selman properties. BIG TExAs VALI,EY IN FLOYD Coul'\TY Big Texas Valley is I2 miles north\Yest of Rome, in Floyd county. It occupies a synclinal of carboniferous rocks enclosed by ridges of the upper formations of the harder ancl more resistant Silurian rocks. the sandstone of the Rockwood formation. 1 The present 1 <~eologic Atlas of the l"ni'ted St:1tes, Route Folio. rnited States <~eological Survey, 1qo2. 136 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA form, however, is due entirely to erosion. The valley has the outline of a deep horseshoe, with the open part to the northeast, through which its drainage is conducted into the Oostanaula river. Its axis trends northeast-southwest, along which direction the valley is divided by a low, but steeply sloping, ridge, the strata of which, on the two sides, have the synclinal attitude. The longer axis of the ridge coincides with the axis of the original syncline, and the rocks forming it occupy the position of greatest compression. The valley is enclosed on the northwest by Simms mountain, ancf on the southeast, by Lavender mountain- two ridges formed of the harder and more resistant Silurian sandstone (Rockwood). They rise to fairly uniform elevations of 700 to 8oo feet above the valley-bottom. Simms mountain is a monoclinal ridge the strata of which dip somewhat steeply toward the southeast, presenting the short steep slope tovv'ard the northwest. Its northeast end is an anticlinal fold. Lavender mountain is also an anticlinal ridge. The accompanying map and section will make plain the geologic features described above. The manganese ores are found near and along the northwest slope of the inner low ridge, known as Rocky mountain. Several small openings have been made on the JoHN DAVIS LoT, No. 94; 4th district, Floyd county. These openings indicated only very small quantities of pure manganese ore. At very shallow depths, the ore grades into a manganiferous iron ore, and finally into limonite. Similar occurrences of manganese are found on the Fouche, King and Alexander properties. The ore is much scattered; and, when opened, it grades, near the surface, into limonite. No workable de. posits of manganese ores were observed by the writer in the Valley. Some prospecting for iron ore has been done, and several hundred tons of the ore have been raised on the Alex. King and John Davis properties; but none has been shipped. The indications are favorable for large deposits of a good grade of iron ore. THE BARNSLEY DISTRICT, BARTow AND FLOYD CouNTIES The Barnsley district is in the northwest part of Bartow county near the Floyd-Bartow county-line, I7 miles northwest of Cartersville. The massive Knox dolomite forms the underlying terrane in Til F Jl !.l. \ "{,' .-/ Yfc"S!! J ! l i i'OS!TS OF {,'FO N (J.I P!J I Tli VI A VIE\\" OF T H E LOG OF A MANGANESE WA SHER ON THE M ILNER- HARR I S PLACE, FIVE MILES NORTHEAST OF C ARTER SVILLE, GEORGIA, THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA 137 this district. Exposures of the fresh limestone are seldom seen, on account of the deep mantle of residual material. The limestone is not entirely free from folding; but such exposures of the fresh rock as occur indicate only slight dips. The underlying Conasauga shales reach the surface, as a narrow anticlinal belt, for several miles north and south of Bamsley. In a similar manner, the shales reach the surface in a more extensive exposure, several miles to the east of Bamsley, where they form the valley occupied by the Westem and Atlantic railroad. The topography is the ridge-valley type. The ridges are usually low, and have steep slopes with intervening narrow and moderately deep and steep-sided valleys. The limestone surface is everywhere covered with a thick mantle of deep-red and chocolate-colored siliceous clays, which contain numerous fragments of chert in all stages of decay. The surface is covered by loose chert fragments over most of the district, heavier in some places than in others. Manganese ores are found in the deep-red and chocolate-colored clays, which cover the low ridges adjacent to the valley of Tom's creek. The conditions here are quite similar to those on some of the ridges near 9ave Spring, describeu on page ros of this report. The ore is prevailingly porous, or honey-combed, and at times stalactitic; and its cavities are frequently lined with minute drusy crystals of pyrolusite. The cavities are usually filled with the red clay. Much chert breccia occurs, formed by the angular fragments of the chert bound or cemented together by a cement of the manganese ores. Less than seventy-five tons of the ore have been mined in the entire district, and this was taken from only two or three openings. Manganese, of the character just described, is exposed in loose fragments scattered over the surface of the following lot~ of land in the Bamsley area and in the I6th district of Bartow county: Nos. 36, 63, 84 and 95, owned by Mr. Morrow; lot 97, owned by Mr. Conway; and lot I I6, owned by Mr. B. F. A. Saylor. Similar surface ores of manganese occur in places along the ridges, from the northwest of Barnsley to a point near Nannie in Floyd county, a distance of nine miles. At the latter locality, large surface accumulations of nodular manganese ores were seen on the land of Mr. E. P. Price. No openings have been made. 1 3t) JH li JfANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC ARErl Deposits of both brown iron ore and bauxite occur in close proximity to the manganese; and the t\YO former have been somewhat extensively worked near Hermitage and at other points in the Barnsley district. The accompanying figure shows the relation of the rocks in the Barnsley district. Section through the Barnsley Tract, Georgia, Showing a Manganese-bearing Chert Bel (Modified from Penrose). A. Chert and Cherty Limestone. B. Limestone. C. Shale. Horizontal Scale: I inc!z=soo .feet. Vertical .Scale: ; inch=200 feet. Manganese ore from the Barnsley estate at Woodlands gave, on chemical analysis, the following figures to the Pittsburg Testing Con"lpany : - ' Per Cent. Mangane"e ________________ . _________________ 43 73c1 Iron _____________________________________ 1.010 Silica _ __ ____ __ Pl10sphorus ~--------- ------- ___ ------- 3530 __________________ 0.129 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF WHITFIELD AND CATOOSA COUNTIES The manganese deposits of vVhitfield and Catoosa counties can best be described together, since they occur near the line between the two counties, lying partly in one and partly in the other county, and are 11aturally not separable. The only deposits of this mineral yet worked in these counties are in the vicinity of Tunnel Hill. a station on the \Vestern and Atlantic railroad. They are described l:elmY under the Tunnel Hill district. The deposits are lucatc: I 111 I The Pale')Z:Jic n-roup, (jeologlcal Survey of Georg-ia, IX93 by l \V. Spencer, p. H)-f. '!HI: Jl.IXCI'.lXLSJ; J)]~POSITS OF Till! P"lLEOZOIC ARE.-/ r39 the western part of \Yhitfield, and the adjacent eastern part of Catoosa county, an~ are associated with the residual decay .of the Knox dolomite. Tm~ TuNNEl, HILL DrsTRICT ToroGRAPHY.-.\s is shmYn on the accompanying map1 of th:: district, the topography resembles somewhat closely that of the Can Spring district, described on page 104. and shown on map. 1 Th:: topography is the pronounced ridge-valley type. The ridges mvc their present elevation to the expost;re at the surface of JnL e resistant strata, \vhile the neighboring valleys or lowlands are occupied by the less resistant formations. The ridges present an irregular and broken surface due to erosion, with their g-reater elevations rising one hundred to t\YO hundred feet above the adjacent valley bottoms. Here, as else\vhere in the Paleozoic area of Georgia, the topography depends primarily on the geologic structure and on the nature of the different rocks. STRUCTURE AND GENERAL GEOLOGY.- The rocks no longer remain horizontal; but, instead, they have been thrown into folds, and, in many cases, faulted at right angles to pressure applied from the northwest and southeast. Extending in_ a northeast-soutlnw;::t direction, seYeral parallel faults cross the Tunnel Hill district at close intervals to each other. These are indicated on the accompanying map.2 The two ea.;tern:11ost faults head in oppmite di e tions toward the east and \\est respecti,ely. :\ long and 1n-ro ,. belt of Knox dolomite, which forms a chain of ridges at present. is enclosed between the t\1. 6 faults, and is in contact on the two sides with the Rome shales and sandstones. The t\\o faults unite a short distance north of Tunnel Hill and are continuous as a single breakage-line for an unknmyn distance south\Yaid in the Rome (Cambrian) formation. :\ narrm\' strip of the soft Cambrian shales. m:c rking a valley position, is in contact on the east \Yith the belt of Rome sandstones and sanely shales: and a second more extensi\e Lc1t of Knox dolomite lies to tbe east of the strip of C:unbrian shale-;. The formations, n:prc5cntec1 in tl'c Tm::1el lTll district. sho\\n G11 the tnap/ range fru:1 t~1e f\t :.~e ( ('~'lll1Jrian) shales anr] Scm:\- 1 See Fig. q, 2 See Fig. 2r. 140 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA stones to the Floyd shales and Bangor limestone inclusive, of Carboniferous age. The shales, sandstones and limestones'.mentioned above, have been continuously exposed to the attack of atmospheric agencies, since the close of Carboniferous time; and they are consequently mantled with a heavy covering of residual decay, derived from them by the usual processes of weathering. The Knox dolomite is the formation of particular interest in this area, since it is only in the residual clays of the magnesian limestone that the manganese deposits are found. FrG. 2r LEGEND []]]E]]]]] Knox dolomtte Conna.sauga. .shal" -~ Rome form~tl.on Manganese Geological Map of the Tunnel Hill District, Georgia, showing the Distribution of the Manganese Deposits, by Thomas L. Watson. Based on the Ringgold Folio, U. S. Geological Survey. Dl\SCRIP'TION oF THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS IN THE TuNNEL HILL DISTRICT The only manganese mining in the Tunnel Hill district was done by the Catoosa Mining Company from 1890 to 1893 on its property two miles north of Tunnel Hill. Less than thirty cars of manganese THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA qr and manganiferous iron ores were shipped from this property, which represented the total shipment of manganiferous ores from the entire district. THE CATOOSA MINING COMPANY'S PROPERTY This property includes the following I6o-acre lots of land: Nos. 250, 251, 254, 255, 256, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, nth district, 3rd section, Catoosa county, and No. 324, IIth district, Jrd section, Whitfield county. The mining done on this property is near the dividing line between Whitfield and Catoosa counties, the property being partly in one and partly in the other. The openings begin about two miles north of Tunnel Hill, and are found at intervals on this and adjoining properties in a northeast direction, for a distance of six miles northeast of Tunnel Hill. The most northerly openings are on Mr. Jacob Messimore's property, six miles northeast of Tunnel Hill, where several shafts have been sunk with fair results. The deposits of manganese are embedded in the residual clays of a narrow belt, consisting of a chain of broken ridges, which extend northwestward from Tunnel Hill into Tennessee. The elevations along the chain of ridges are quite variable, rising, in most cases, between IOO and ISO feet, with extreme altitudes of more than 200 feet further northward. The underlying rock, composing the ridges, is the Knox dolomite, capped by a considerable depth of residual decay derived from this formation. Both gray and red cherty clays constitute the decay from the limestone, usually showing but little chert exposed on the surface. The gray cherty clays greatly predominate, with the ore distributed usually through the red clays, which are of variable depth. A shaft is reported to have been sunk in the cherty clays to a depth of 210 feet without striking the underlying fresh rock. Exposures of the fresh rock were seldom observed. The Catoosa Mining Company has made a large number of extensive openings, which extend over a distance of about two miles, in a northeast-southwest direction. Excavations on the property include open-cuts, tunnels and shafts. Many of the numerous shafts, 142 THIJ .1:'.LYC.:.YIS'; i!(l'OS!T.\ OF T!-fl;' 1'.11./00/'.0JC ARLl sunk at different places over the property, will average more than ror:J feet in depth. In the deeper ones, drifts are reported to have ~~:1 nm at e\ery 2j~foot le,el in the shafts. One ~haft, athining the depth of IjO feet. is said to have encountered manganiferous iron for most of its depth. .-\t the time of my visit. the oFn:ng,; had all fallen in and the exact conditions of the ore and the c:,~h>'i~ ing clay were difficult to make out. The clumps han been well cleansed of ore; ancl they left practically nothing to be seen in th=s particular. The ores are enclosed in the reel clays as is shown in the numerous r;penings, which contain large masses of chert in a more advanced stage of decay, as a rule, than that commingled with the clays of the Cartersville and Cave Spring districts. For this reason, the quantity of chert fragments admixed with th~ clays is less than in the two districts just mentioned. The character of the ore closely resembles that of the Cartersville district. It consists mostly of Intryuiclal ancl kiclncy~shapecl nodules. varying from one inch to twelve and more inches in diameter, composed usually of a crystal~ line interior. The best exposures of the ore were seen in a number of large cuts near the northern limits of the property. Here, the ore is of the character already described, heavy and crystalline mas~ sive nodular, and generally remarkably free from quartz grains and fragments. The nodules are scattered as single lumps through the clay, and are concentrated in the form of pockets. The openings nearest Tunnel Hill show limonite and manganif~ erous iron ores, much of \vhich, is of the breccia type, the ore con~ taining a considerable proportion of decayed chert fragments held together by the matrix of ore. Deposits of the limonite occur in close relation with the manganese ores in numerous places on the ridge. In these places, the brown ore is more abundant than the manganese, and it occurs in pockets and lenticular layers, the latter often attaining a thickness of 20 feet. The iron and manganese ores occur. in some places, intimately mixed as manganiferous iron ore; also, as separate and distinct ores, in the same deposit; while in other places, they occur as separate deposits \\'ithout any intermix~ ture ,,hatever. Penrose makes the following statement regarding the occurrence THE J1ANGANSE D]jPOSJTS OF THE P,1LEOZOIC ARE! Lt3 of the ore in place in the rock: "In a pit at the base .of the hill, manganese ore occurs in place in the rock, which is often of a charactei-istic brownish-chrome color, is hard, and has a conchoidal fracture. The ore .is found in it in layers or nests, and frequently the rock is studded with numerous small black, concretions of ore the size of mustard seeds. In some places the nodules haYe weathered out of the rock and lie in the clay on its partly decomposed sure !ace.''I No occurrence of the manganese ores in place, in the original rock, was obseryed by the writer; but that they were originally disseminated through the rock, in some form, can n?t be doubted. Very extensive preparations for mining on this property \Yere made by the company, involving a considerable outlay of money. A manganese plant, equipped with the necessary modern machinery, \\as built, ancl se\eralmiles of railroad laid to the openings for con,eying the ores to the mill. OTHER MANGANESE PROPER'fiES IN THE TUNNEL HILL DISTRICT _-\bout six miles northeast of Tunnel Hill, on the same chain of ridges, several shafts were sunk on Mr. Jacob Messimore's property. in Catoosa county, with favorable results. On the adjoining property to the south, known as the Dempsey property. ancl fi\e miles northeast of Tunnel Hill on the same ridge, some openings were made in I892, exposing both manganese ancl limonite, similar to that on the Catoosa Mining Company's property. From four to six miles southwest of Tunnel Hill, and on the southwest extension of the same ridge as the properties abon described, scattered fragments of manganese ore are founcl, to a limited extent, oYer the surface of properties in \Vhitfielcl county, belonging to the following persons: Messrs. VI/. H. C. Freeman, S. P. Anderson, John Carr of \Vhitfielcl county, ancl include lots r66, 195, 202, 231, 238 and 267. This part of the ridge presents the same general characters. as are given above, for its northeastern extension beyond Tunnel Hill. No excavations have been made, and t)1e quantities of ore scattered over the surface were not large. 1 Penrose, R. A. F., 1\fanganese: It:-; t"ses, Ores anct Deposits, Ann. Report, <~col. Snney of Arkansas, r891. Vol. I, pp. 430-43r. 144 THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF THE PALEOZOIC AREA From five to seven miles northeast of Tunnel Hill, in Whitfield county, near Varnell's station on the Southern Railway, manganese ores were reported to the writer as occurring on the Spann, the Crow, the Murphy and the Williamson properties. On examining these properties, scarcely a trace of manganese was observed; and all the test-pits visited, which afforded evidence of ore, showed either hematite or limonite, with no manganese nor manganiferous iron ore exposed. CHAPTER VI GENESIS OF THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF. THE PALEOZOIC AREA Before formulating any theory of the origin of the deposits of manganese ores in the Georgia Paleozoic area, it will be necessary to briefly review the general geologic conditions and mode of occurrence of the ore deposits, which are more fully discussed elsewhere in this report. STRATIGRAPHIC PosiTION oF THE ORES.- The manganese ores of the Paleozoic area are limited entirely to the deep mantle of residual material, derived from the decay of limestones and quartzite. Named in ascending order, the formations, in the residual decay of which the ores are enclosed, are: the Weisner quartzite, the Beaver limestone, and the Knox dolomite-Cambro-Silurian in age. The ores occur with about equal frequency in the residual decay derived from the three formations. CHARACTER OF THE DECAY.- The loose material, covering the hard, unaltered rocks of the area, is that which results entirely from the action of atmospheric agencies; and, as such, it rests directly on the rocks from which it is derived. Away from the contact zones between the formations, the decay is characteristic of the different rock formations from which it is derived, and it is easy of differentiation. Along the contact between the formations, more or less intermingling of the residua takes place, and differentiation is less easy. In composition, the residual material varies from highly siliceous to deep red, ferruginous clays. Variation in color ranges from lightgray and yellow, through the light and deep shades of red, to chocolate-brown and black. Much white clay is locally encountered in (145) 146 GENESIS OF THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS the siliceous residua of the quartzite. Fragments of the parent rocks, of varying sizes, and representing all stages of decay, are mixed in greater or less proportion with the clays. In texture, the residuum varies quite markedly; but it is usually sufficiently porous to readily admit of easy percolation of the atmospheric waters. The essential differences in the residual material, here mentioned, are clearly those, which obtain iri the decayed product derived from rocks, so markedly different in composition as limestone and quartzite. DEPTH OF THE DECAY. - Over the limestone areas, exposures of the fresh rock are seldom seen; and, with one or tw0 exceptions, mining operations have not reached depths, greater than the thickness or the residual clays; but they are confined within the limits of the decay. On the Knox dolomite ridge to the south of Rome, known as Reynolds mountain, manganese openings expcse i:he partialfy decayed cherty magnesian limestone, at slight depths beneath the red clay. The irregularity in depth of decay derived from the Knox dolomite is well brought out in the figure below of a section two miles east of Kingston. Exposures of the fresh rock are more frequent over the quartzite area, particularly along the cr~sts and near the tops of the steeper slopes of the higher ridges. Disconnected reefs and large, broken, angular masses of the fresh quartzite rise many feet, in some cases, above the residual decay on the ridge crests. The depth of decay rapidly increases in passing from the ridge tops to the valley bottoms. In the Chumley Hill district of Bartow county, several shafts have reached depths of more than 8o feet in mining manganese, without piercing the bed rock. MonE oF OccuRRENCE oF THE ORES. -As stated above, the manganese ores are entirely limited to the residual material resting upon the limestone and quartzite. In no case, have I found the ores in place in the fresh rock; and, in several excavations in the Cartersville district, on the slopes and near the ridge-tops, I have observed veins of the ore, filling the cracks which intersect the shatter~d a~d moderately fresh quartzi.te, the origin of which has beyond question been from the percolating waters above, bringing in GENESIS OF THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS r 47 FIG. 22 Section in the Knox Dolomite, 2 miles East of Kingston, Georgia, Illustrating Weathering of the Magnesian Limestone (Modified from Spencer). A. Residual Clay. B. Fresh Magnesian Limestone. and precipitating the manganese. Doctor Penrose states, that the ore often occurs in position in the solid rock, similar to that in which it is now found in the clay.' This may be true, in a few cases, though the writer has found no evidence of it in the field. The ores occur in the clay, in the form of disseminated grains or pellets, concretionary nodules and masses, pockets or lenticular layers, and stringers. As a rule, the ore-bodies irregularly cross the bedding of the enclosing clay; though, at times, they appear to conform in a general way to the bedding. The disconnected and irregular character of the deposits often renders this tendency obscure. Even though the ores, in ageneral way, conformed at all times with the bedding of the enClosing clays, it would not necessarily argue for the similar position of the ores in the original'rock. For, in an area like Georgia, where the rocks are thrown into sharp folds with steep dips, the bedding-planes would offer the easier and more natural lines for the percolating waters. Along these directions, the decay would be augmented, and the precipitation of the manganese would take place. The ore-bodie's yary greatly in size, ranging from mere nests to I Of. cit. q.8 GENESIS OF THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS pockets or lenticular layers, from six to eight feet thick and from thirty to forty feet in length. The more solid pockets of ore consist of concretionary masses and nodules, more or less closely assembled in the clay. Occasionally, the smaller pockets or nests are free from clay, and consist of P?re nodules and masses of the ore. The pockets may occur close together or far apart. If close together, they not infrequently are connected, in an irregular way, by stringers and thin seams of the ore. Much breccia ore occurs in places, especially in the quartzite area and the more cherty horizons of the Knox dolomite. Here, the broken fragments of the quartzite and the cherty masses of the limestone have been cemented together by the ore deposited from percolating waters. The proportion of ore to rock, in the breccia type, varies greatly; from masses, in which the ore predominates, to those, in which the rock composes the greater bulk, with all intermediate gradations. The ore exists entirely in the form of the oxides of the metal. and is. usually entirely or partially crystallized. Its usual form is that of concretionary lumps and nodules, as mammillary masses, simulating bunches of grapes, potatoes, etc. A less common variety is that closely resembling the stalactitic form. The layered structure of the nodules is often composed of either the fibrous or granular crystallization or both. DISTRIBUTION o.F THE ORE IN THE CLAY.- The distribution of the ore in the clay is an extremely irregular one. Locally, the orebodies may be grouped quite close together; more often, however, they are far apart. No exact estimate of the ratio or proportion of clay to ore can be made as a whole; but it is usually larger than in the associated deposits of brown iron ore. Only locally, can approximations be made; and these will vary widely, from place to place. Over most of the ar~a, the clays are almost entirely barren; or else they contain only traces of the disseminated ore, particles and larger fragments. As deep as mining has yet reached, it is significant, that the vertical distribution of the ore is marked by as great irregularity as that of lateral or horizontal distribution. Such a distribution of the ore would oppose any theory of accumulation and concentra- GENESIS OF THE MANGANESE DEPOSITS 149 tion along certain more impervious rock masses or layers, as some have ascribed to certain of the more northerly deposits of manganese of the Atlantic border region. The ore bears every appearance of deposition from solutions percolating through-the residual clays. AssociATION oF THE MANGANEsE wiTH OTHER ORE DEPosiTs oF THE AREA.- The manganese ores are somewhat closely associated with important commercial deposits of brown iron ore, yellow ocher and bauxite. The deposits of iwn all coritain traces of manganese, and most of the manganese contains traces of iron; but the principal deposits of the two metals are quite distinct from each other. According to origin, several distinct types of limonite, or brown iron ore, occur in association with the manganese, in the Georgia Paleozoic area, grouped by Hayes as follows: ' (I) gossaf' ores; ( 2) Tertiary gravel ores; ( 3) concentration deposits;