Papers - Barite Deposits in North Carolina (With Discussion)

The object of this paper is to record and interpret field and laboratory observations made by the writers during five years of study of the barite deposits of North Carolina. Deposits of barite are known to occur in three localities in North Carolina (Fig. 1) two of which—the Hot Springs and Kings Mountain —contain material of economic value. The Hot Springs area begins near Bluff, some 6 miles south of Hot Springs, and continues northeast by Stackhouse; a total length of 7 miles. The Kings Mountain deposits lie along a belt that extends from the north end of Crowders Mountain in a southwestward direction, along the east side of this and Kings Mountain, to Kings Creek, South Carolina. The third locality is 3½ miles southeast of Hillsboro, Orange County, a short distance west of the highway leading from Hillsboro to Chapel Hill. It is not known when barite was first discovered in North Carolina, but production from the Hot Springs area began some 50 years ago. The state has never produced large quantities of barite—usually there have been less than three producers—and definite figures are not available, but reasonably reliable estimates indicate a total production of 300,000 tons. From 1901 through 1920 barite mining was on a seemingly prosperous basis and a large tonnage was shipped from the Hot Springs and Kings Mountain areas. With the depression of 1920 the industry began to decline and production practically ceased in 1926. Geology of the Barite Areas In the Hot Springs area barite is found in the Max Patch granite of Archean age and the Snowbird formation of Cambrian age. The Max Patch granite is of two varieties, one gray to whitish and the other red. The gray granite is coarse, at times porphyritic, and composed of quartz, orthoclase and plagioclase feldspar, with a little biotite and muscovite. The red granite is also coarse and differs from the other only in having conspicuous pink and red feldspar. Both varieties have been much metamorphosed and weathered in places, so that they contain secondary