Duncan Mine or Hardin Mica Mines - Ashe Co

[Newbie Matt]

Ruth Stanley - the prolific writer and NC field geologist - gives specific locations for golden Beryl and Aquamarine deposits at the South Hardin Mica Mine in Ashe Co. Has anyone been onsite? How about the North Hardin Mica Mine or the Duncan mine?

Thanks for your input.
Matt Musson

[dr00bie]

Glad to see you came by here, Matt... if you find anything out about these mines, please pass them on!

Drew

[crystaldragon33]

Hmm. Never been there, but have heard of them in old NCGS publications. I'd love to check it out.... field trip anyone?

[Newbie Matt]

Here's what Stanley said in 'Rocks & Minerals'
"The Quartz streak long the footwall of the pegmatite contained beryl crystals from less than an inch up to 6 and 8 inches in diameter. The crystals were of the highest quality of good golden and aquamarine color."

and

"The color of the mica found there was a clear 'rum' color, and of the highest quality where the finest gem-quality golden beryl occurs"

The only location info I have is that the South Hardin Mica Mine is about 1 1/2 miles southwest of Beaver Creek and the North Hardin mine is a mile to the Northwest. I am not sure if that's northwest of Beaver
Creek or the South Hardin mine?

Anyway - it sounded like it would be worth the trip - if we just knew where it was.

She also says at the end of this article:

In a later article I will tell of a place where massice gold, aquamarine, blue and white beryl can be found - all done up in the sausage!

Got to find that article on my next trip to the library!

[Rob]

I hope there is no issue bringing a thread up from 2005, but I have been doing research for the last couple of days on the Hardin Mines and have more information to offer, including a map of the North Hardin Mine and a Google Earth KMZ (attached) that I put together indicating probable search areas for both mines. The KMZ is based on the text below and a 1912 soil survey map of Ashe County. Most of what is referenced earlier in this thread was taken by other authors from "Proceedings of the Good Roads Institute", which offered many more details. Proceedings of the Good Roads Institute is available for free on Google Books and has a ton of information about NC mines (including maps that reference roads/railroads). I also found a reference to the Hardin Mines in the 1957 Bureau of Mines / Minerals yearbook area reports (text also below) which indicates the name of the mining company that was running the operation (could be useful if anyone decides to research further in Ashe County records).

I live a little too far away to go check this out, but maybe someone local can use this and will have some luck which they can share with the group. It looks like a lot of the property in the "search areas" are farms, tree farms, or forest.



Proceedings of the Good Roads Institute, held at the University of North Carolina - Good Roads Institute, Chapel Hill, NC, Univeristy of North Carolina (1793-1962), North Carolina. Geological and Economic Survey. Highway Division

North Hardin Mine. - The North Hardin mine is on a ridge about 1 1/2 miles west of Beaver Creek. It has been worked on a large scale and more systematically than is usual for mica in North Carolina. The mine was operated by two open cuts and other pits, three crosscut tunnels to the "vein," two shafts, and considerable drifting and stoping on the vein. These workings have proved the continuity of the pegmatite for a length of over 100 yards and show the thickness to vary from 3 to 8 feet. The country rock of the region is hornblende gneiss, but the mica deposit occurs in a smaller belt of biotite (probably granite) gneiss. The strike of the pegmatite is N 20 degrees E and the dip 75 degrees to 80 degrees E. At a place about 80 yards north of the main workings a shallow shaft was sunk in line with the "vein" on a small streak of pegmatite 18 inces thick, which was probably the main "vein" pinching out. Figure 22 shows te extent of the work open for examination at the time of visit. A large part of the stoping and drifts had caved in and could not be seen. The greater part of the vein above the tunnels shown in the figure had been removed, however, and future work should be directed to vein matter between old workings and to lower depths, easily attaind with facilities for draining. Tunnel No 3 is probably 50 feet higher than No. 1. The mine produced a large quantity of small block mica, yeilding sheets 1 by 2 and 3 by 4 inches. A number of large blocks, yielding sheets 6 by 8 and more inches square, were found with the smaller material. Many small blocks of mica and one crystal over 10 inches thick and a foot wide was seen in the "vein," embedded in feldspar. The mica has a beautiful clear "rum" color and is of the best grade. Most of the blocks yield sheets of perfect quality.



South Hardin Mine. - The South Hardin mine is near the top of a small mountain or hill about 1 1/2 miles southwest of Beaver Creek. This mine was first opened by small pits, trenches, and a tunnel along the vein. The surface workings were at the summit of the hill and the tunnel on the outcrop about 40 feet lower down to the northeast. The mine was later operated by a 30-foot shaft near the top of the hill and an open cut about 75 feet long and 10 to 20 feet dep on the "vein." The country rock of the region, like that of the North Hardin mine, a mile to the northwest, is hornblende gneiss. The mica-bearing pegmatite is enclosed in a smaller mass of biotite mica gneiss included in the hornblende gneiss. Th pegmatite is conformable with the schistosity of the enclosing formations, which strike due northeast and dip 50 degrees SE at this point. The pegmatite is about 7 feet thick as exposed at the surface. The interior is fine grained or like coarse granite, whereas along the walls the crystallization is much coarser. The principal mica yield is reported to have come from the foot wall, along which massive quartz streaks up to 2 feet thick were found. It is said that the crystallization of the pegmatite was coarser below a depth of 15 feet and the quantity of mica in it was larger than near the surface. The color of the mica obtained was a clear "rum" and the quality the best. The quarts streaks along the wall of the pegmatite contained beryl crystals less than an inch to 6 or 8 inches in diameter. These crystals were of good golden and aquamarine color, though cloudy and only translucent. It was found they made very pretty gems for scarf pins, cuff buttons, etc., when cut en cabochon.



Bureau of Mines / Minerals yearbook area reports 1957
Year 1957, Volume III (1959), Page 805

Ashe.—Ashe County ranked fourth in value of mineral production. Appalachian
Suiphides, Inc., began producing copper at its new Ore Knob mine and recovered
628 troy ounces of gold and 11,761 troy ounces of silver. Thirteen mines
produced 24,000 pounds of sheet and 38 tons of scrap mica; leading companies
were Duncan Mining Co. (Duncan mine) and P. & W. Mining Co. (Hardin mine).
Macon Construction Co. and the State highway commission mined paving
sand and gravel.


Hopefully this isn't too bad for a first post

Thanks,
Rob

Attachments:

[morishidol]

Hopefully someone who lives close to this can go check it out and maybe even dig a little an obtain some nice specimens from their,,keep us posted where this goes!!

[Ryan]

Im in!! This sounds like an adventure that could play out huge! Assemble the away team!

[Cbass]

I am not far away and love pegmatite minerals. if someone wants to set up an exploratory trip, let me know and i will help out.

[Rob]

Lol, I probably shouldn't have started researching this, since I am OCD when it comes to problem solving and programming.. I'm officially interested if anyone wants to organize a trip out there. I can't imagine that it would be hard to obtain permission to walk the tree farms or empty fields in the search areas.

A refined KMZ for Google Earth is attached, the most likely ridges/mountains are now shaded in yellow. These were refined based on the historical descriptions I didn't have when I started pinpointing.

I've also contacted the Ashe Historical Society to ask for more information or direction as to where more information can be obtained. They had a picture of the Hardin family on their site: picasaweb.google.com/AsheHistorical/OldAsheCounty?authkey=vR88eu5kCiE#5128065172734740210

Unrelated, but also found an old pic of the Ore Kob (Knob?) mine operation in Ashe County:
picasaweb.google.com/AsheHistorical/OldAsheCounty?authkey=vR88eu5kCiE#5128065121195132642

And here is a link to the 1912 soil survey for Ashe County that I referenced in my original post:
www.lib.unc.edu/dc/ncmaps/interactive/MC_006_1912h.html

I'll let everyone know what (if anything) I get back from the Historical Society.


On a completely unrelated note, 15+ years ago I found a previously unknown (never mined) area in North Lincoln County (almost on the Catawba County line) where you could pull huge deep purple amethyst crystals/clusters out of the ground all day long. A friends step-dad was putting up a barn and had some land leveled, it rained afterwards and purple crystals were visible on the ground. I think I still have a 7-8" crystal at my moms house, I will try to get it this weekend and post pics (I think it's been damaged though). I'm going to work and see if I can get permission to hunt there or on a field that is adjacent (and usually leased by a local realtor) this summer. They had it surveyed and veins were all over the place, but they were not into rockhounding so they just left it all there and built the barn

--
Rob

Attachments:

[Ryan]

Rob and Cbass, Ill be in town Friday, Saturday and possibly Sunday this weekend. Sat. early afternoon and all day Sunday, I can clear my schedule to go look for this place. If the weather cooperates, I will be glad to be on the first exploratory expedition.

[rocknjohn]

I live within a quarter mile of this site, unfortunatly it has become a golf coarse and any tailings have been bulldozed and covered with soil and grass. I too had spent years trying to find this location and recently made contact with a long term local who knew the location. I have searched the woods adjacent to the old mine location and have found just golf balls and no indication of pegmatite materials.

[bobrock]

I too live in Ashe County. A friend, who has since moved away from the area, took me to what is left of one of these mines. Take old 221 south towards Boone (in front of McDonalds) and if you turn onto every road that goes to the right you will eventually get to the road that this mine is on. Sorry for being so vague, it was quite a while ago that we drove by. Look up on the ridges to the left and you will see concrete caps over the shafts and other mining remnants. There are a lot of houses around there, one is even built on the edge of the dumps. We didn't try to collect anything.