Significant reserves of garnet reside in areas of Western North Carolina. Associated with ultramafic rocks, corundum was studied in the early twentieth century for its use as an abrasive material. Gemstones Natural. North Carolina has long been famous for the variety of precious and semi-precious stones found in the Piedmont and Mountain regions of the state. With the help of this find, the area is emerging as a high-quality emerald district of worldwide significance, and the find has prompted several dozen commercially-operated collection localities to open to the public.
Motivated by the commercial successes, amateur collectors try their luck at finding emeralds, rubies and sapphires gem-quality corundum , hiddenite, garnet, and other semi-precious stones.
This public participation has helped North Carolina rank first in the East in the mining and marketing of gemstones and mineral specimens. Primary gem-collecting counties include Alexander emeralds and hiddenite , Macon rubies, sapphires, and garnets , and Mitchell emeralds and aquamarine.
High-Purity Quartz and Glass Sand. The three principal markets for this high-purity quartz include electronics for semiconductors, solar markets for the production photovoltaic cells, and applications in the lamp tubing market. As an example, Unimin Corporation, with its IOTA-branded quartz from Spruce Pine, is a worldwide supplier to the glass, ceramic, and lighting industries, to oil and natural gas service companies, and to paint, plastic, rubber, and composite manufacturers.
Additionally , quartzites of the Chilhowee Group in northern McDowell County have potential to be a source of high-silica material. Mineral dressing data show the silica concentrate is suitable for plate glass and container glass and, upon further grinding, as a source of fine-ground silica. Quality quartz is also produced in the Kings Mountain district. Lithium Spodumene.
Although first recognized as early as , the economic significance of the spodumene-bearing pegmatites of the Kings Mountain district was not realized until Today, this relatively small area in Cleveland and Gaston Counties contains ore reserves that represent more than 80 percent of known lithium spodumene reserves.
Lithium spodumene mineral production ceased with the closure of the FMC Corporation mine south of Cherryville. The overburden is currently being processed for aggregate. Lithium is also used in the manufacture of ceramics, glass, greases, television glass, and batteries.
Rockwood Holdings, Inc. Department of Energy to expand and upgrade the production of lithium materials for advanced transportation batteries. Currently, the site produces other lithium salts and lithium metal for primary batteries. Marble Limestone. The two main producers of marble metamorphosed and recrystallized limestone in the region are the Hewitt mine in Swain County and the Fletcher Limestone Company Quarry in Henderson County. Both facilities produce crushed stone for aggregate used in road construction.
The Fletcher Quarry also produces ultra-fine calcium carbonate for a variety of uses, including agriculture, civil engineering, water management, chemical production, and in the steel industry.
Processed spoil material is marketed as quality foundation fill for roadways and small buildings. The Hewitt mine also produces landscaping stone and finely crushed material for use in concrete. The Murphy marble belt in Cherokee County was mined extensively in the past. Dolomite, a type of limestone that contains magnesium, was formerly mined in McDowell County. Limestone was formerly mined in the Kings Mountain area in Cleveland County. Sit at the flume and sift through a bucket of ore from local mines to see what treasures are buried in it — maybe rubies, sapphires or fossils.
Or go on a rock-hound tour and pan by a river or stream. You may discover a few local stones as well as colorful souvenirs from Morocco, India or South America. At this old commercial mining site, pan for gold in the same stream that prospectors swarmed in the early s.
Or screen a bucket of ore for garnets, amethysts, topaz, rose quartz and other gems. Located in the old Macon County jail, this folksy museum welcomes families and school groups to eight rooms of gems and minerals from all over the world. Located in the heart of downtown, this great museum brings the Earth alive with interactive, hands-on exhibits on geology, plate tectonics, meteorology and the history of mining in western North Carolina.
Used in ceramics, insecticides, and other products, pyrophyllite was first identified in in Moore County. In a processing plant was built near Robbins on what proved to be the largest deposit in the state and the only underground workings. One of the most widespread minerals, found in all classes of rock. Quartz silicon dioxide comes in many varieties, such as milky quartz. Avery, Mitchell , Yancey, and Cleveland Counties produce quartz sand for industrial use.
Pink variety of garnet unique in North America to North Carolina. Pale pink rhodolite was reported in Asheville in and discovered in during mining for ruby corundum in the Cowee Valley.
Between and rhodolite was mined on Sugarloaf Mountain in Jackson County for use as an abrasive. Blood-red gem variety of corundum. The Cowee Valley in Macon County, site of the first efforts to recover the gemstone from gravel in , yielded only flawed rubies. Though the ruby industry never enjoyed the success of corundum, tourists can still purchase buckets of gravel with sluices and sieves to search the contents for rubies.
Gem corundum of any color except blood-red reserved for the ruby. Sapphires were first mined regularly at the Corundum Hill Mine in Macon County in , then in Jackson County in tons yielded 25 percent nearly pure crystals. Notable sapphires, such as a 1, carat blue star sapphire found near Canton in , have been found on occasion, and tourists still enjoy searching through buckets from old sapphire mines with screens and sluices.
Precious metal mined in North Carolina as a secondary product to gold and copper. During the Civil War it produced lead for bullets and was worked intermittently for silver, lead, and zinc until Some silver production was reported from to , but the metal is of minor importance to the state.
Soft, slippery rock containing talc a hydrous magnesium silicate. The Indians used soapstone , or talc, to carve utensils; early settlers shaped it into sills and wainscoting. The stone was also used to line the fireplaces in the State Capitol and many private homes because of its ability to hold heat for a considerable time. Soapstone has been found in about a third of the counties, but deposits have generally been too small and erratic for commercialization.
Derived from the rare mineral monazite thorium phosphate and found in alluvial deposits called black sands. Mined from sediments in a belt covering Alexander, Burke, Catawba, Cleveland, Iredell, Lincoln, and Rutherford Counties from to , thorium enjoyed a period of demand as a necessary component of the Welsbach incandescent gaslight.
Mined as cassiterite tin oxide , occurring in pegmatites and as alluvial deposits. Hard, malleable metal found as tungstates with great tensile strength. It was recognized in gold mines as early as in Cabarrus County and reevaluated there in by the Carolina Tungsten Company. A large deposit in Vance County first reported in prompted the building of the Tungsten Queen Mine in Considerable reserves remain. Igneous rock found in Madison and Mitchell Counties as narrow veins of green epidote with red feldspar and quartz in schistose granite.
It is chiefly of interest to collectors, since it makes a colorful polished stone. Element essential to the production of nuclear energy, existing in potential reserves of 5—10 million pounds in the Wilson Creek gneiss and Grandfather Mountain Formation in the western counties of Avery and Caldwell.
Rare minerals containing uranium torbernite, gummite, autunite, and uraninite can be found in Mitchell County. Alteration product of hydrothermal activity on magnesium and iron mica. Closely associated with olivine, it can be found in the western counties, particularly Macon and the Swannanoa area of Buncombe.
Used for its insulating properties and as a packing material, vermiculite was of little interest before , when a small industry developed in the state. Mineral found as a silicate of the rare element zirconium. First discovered in , zircon was rediscovered in the s as a component in gas mantles and electric lighting, but deposits are of no commercial importance.
Zircon is often flawed by the radioactivity of trace elements, but some crystals are heat-treated to gain bright, desirable colors. Cubic zirconia, from zirconium dioxide, has a brilliance that challenges natural diamonds. Raleigh [N. I live in Mooresville and there's a lake behind me. I wanted to find someone to help me identify and sell. Anyone have recommendations? I live in NW Randolph County and have sparkly diamond-like grains throughout our soil.
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