Chestatee Mine, Dahlonega, Lumpkin County, Georgia, USAi

Regional Level Types
Chestatee Mine	Mine
Dahlonega	Town
Lumpkin County	County
Georgia	State
USA	Country

The Chestatee Mining Property consists of lots 144, 145, 146 and 167, 11th district, and 1,041, 1,042, 1,092, 1,I86 and 1,I87, 12th district, all being fractional lots, lying along the Chestatee river, except 146, in the 11th district, and 1,092, in the 12th district. The river divides the two districts, the former lying south and east, and the latter, north and west, of it. As has been previously stated, the lots. of the 11th district are 250-acre lots, while those of the 12th are 40-acre lots. There are, in all, probably between 650 and 700 acres in this property, much of it consisting of a vast expanse of beautiful valley-land, with low ridges encircling it, and the river wending its way through its center. Two or three dredge-boats had been, for some time, having excellent success, recovering gold, by dredging and sluicing gravel, from the bottom of the river, at various places along its course. The Chestatee Mining Co., composed largely of gentlemen of means, from St. Louis, Mo., with Mr. J. D. Thompson, as President, and Mr. W. R. Crandall, as Mining Engineer and General Manager, purchased these lots, and determined to turn the river into a new channel, to be cut through the adjacent bottoms, on the north side; and to work the river-bed for gold, which, they reasonably supposed, would be found, in paying quantities. To carry out this plan, extensive preparations were begun, in 1893. A large, but short, canal was constructed, some of it, by blasting out the hard rock, to bring water, from a dam across the river to two 66-inch Leffel turbine water-wheels. A 12x24-inch Blake duplex pump, with a capacity of 1,000 gallons per minute, under a pressure of from 50 to 60 pounds per square inch, was purchased, and mounted in place; as were also a 2 S H.P. electric motor, of the C. & C. type, with a 50 H.P. generator, and a smaller electric motor. All this machinery was new; and good substantial houses were built for its protection, and for other purposes. This plant was located at Neisler's Ford. One of the turbines was used to actuate the pump, which supplied water, under a 60-pound pressure, through a 9-inch pipe, to the hydraulic giant, and to a portable hydraulic gravel-elevator, devised by Mr. Crandall, and described by him, before a meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. The water is divided at a convenient point, a s-inch pipe supplying the hydraulic elevator, and a 7-inch pipe, the giant. The latter is used, for washing off the over-burden of alluvium from the gravel, in the bottoms lying along the river; and the debris, thus washed off, is taken up by the elevator to a flume above, which conveys and discharges it into the river, below the dam.

The other turbine actuated the 50 H.P. generator, which furnished electricity to the 25 H.P. electric motor, and to the smaller motor, used for pumping water direct from the river, for washing the gravel in sluice-boxes, for the gold. The plant was designed, so as to work, day and night, the electric generator furnishing light, as well as power. The water-power is a shoal, with a six- or eight-foot fall.

The work of excavating the new channel, for the river, was begun in 1895; and the excavation was made about thirty-five feet wide, and as deep, as the underlying hard schists would permit. Its location varies, from 50 to 200 yards from the north bank of the river, with which it trends, in almost parallel lines. I was informed by Mr. Crandall, that the gold, saved from the gravel taken out, about paid the expenses of excavating. After extending this excavation, so as to expose 400 or 500 yards of the river-bed, it was found, that, on account of the water's running quite swiftly, along that section of the river, the bottom consisted of smooth schists, with comparatively little gravel on it. A large amount of money had been spent on the plant; and, when the company learned, that, after all the work and expense, little gold would probably be found, to repay this great outlay, operations were stopped, and the property was sold, for a comparatively small sum, to Mr. Frank W. Hall, of Dahlonega, to whom the company was indebted. There is still a large placer area, that has never been worked. The beds, along the small branches coming down from the hills, are said to be quite rich. It is believed, that considerable gold will be found in the gravel-beds, extending from the river to the foot of the hills, of which there are 200 acres, only thirty having been worked; and that the veins in the ridges, which have not been prospected, will prove to be valuable. Some work was done, years ago, along the small branches, which flow from the hollows on the ridges; and the results are reputed to have been very satisfactory. A pocket, in a small vein, about half way up the ridge, on the south side, worked by James M. Adams, yielded $7 so, the lot belonging, at that time, to Mr. Alexander Whelchel (pronounced Wilkie). There are several old tunnels on the south ridge, worked years ago, in a small way. While operating along the river, Mr. Crandall also did a little prospecting on the south ridge. Near the top, he drove a short tunnel, in a southeast direction, to cut an auriferous quartz vein, and followed the vein, by test-pits, along the top and west side of the hill, for a distance of, probably, 400 yards, to a point, where now is to be seen a narrow open cut, on the southwest side of the hill. This cut, on the side of the hill, is in the nature of an approach to a tunnel begun, but carried no further. It is about thirty feet long. The material through which it is cut, consists of a soft, cream-colored, schistose saprolite, the original rock of which is completely decomposed, except, that, along the fracture-lines, are folia of a green chlorite, resembling clinochlore. This mineral has undergone some alteration. The ore-body, exposed by the cut, consists of small quartz stringers in the cream-colored saprolite; these vary from a sixteenth of an inch to four inches in thickness. The ore-body is from five to six feet thick. The stringers and the schists strike N. 60° E., and dip, at an angle of 60°, to the southeast. About a hundred yards northeast of this opening, along the trend of the vein, between this cut and the Crandall tunnel, is an old incline shaft, said to be fifty feet deep, and to have been worked, fifty years ago. It was filled with caved material, which was covered with leaves, to within six feet of the top. The material, through which it was sunk, was of the same character, as that just described; and the vein was easily seen, on the north and south walls of the shaft, the latter having followed the vein down, along its dip. The strike of the vein was N. 10° E., and its dip, 70° to the southeast. At this point, the vein was 30 inches thick, and not at all of a stringer character. From one of the walls of the shaft, I took out several large slabs of the partially disintegrated quartz. It was filled with a great many iron-stained cavities (hematite); and, on being broken across, it showed a large quantity of pyrite, disseminated through it, in particles about the size of duck-shot. These specimens, and those on the old dump, at the mouth of the shaft, which were of the same character, proved, that the ore, in its unaltered condition, was, to a large extent, of a sulphide nature. No sample for assay was taken from this point.

About 150 yards northeast of the old shaft, along the trend of the vein towards the Crandall tunnel, was a small, square, prospect pit, on the west side of the hill, which I have designated as Pit No. I. This was only four feet deep. The vein, here exposed, was one foot thick, and the quartz was banded and speckled with pyrite, and of the same character, as that from the old shaft just described, except it was very little decomposed. Some of the particles of pyrite, in the quartz, were entirely decomposed; others, not at all. The vein was intercalated in the schists, and trended due north, dipping at an angle of 50° to the east, while the dip of the schists was 65° to the east. Several other pits of this kind were examined, along the trend of the vein; but they furnished nothing worthy of note. The last opening, along the vein, in a northeast direction, is The Crandall Tunnel. The entrance to this is from the north side of the hill. It is about twenty-five feet long, and is driven, at right angles, to the strike of the decomposed schists, which is N. 25° E., with a dip of 40° to the southeast. The schists, in the rear part of the tunnel, are biotite flasser-schist, the biotite, in part, altered to a dark-green chlorite. At the rear end of the tunnel, a three-foot auriferous quartz vein is encountered, which consists of a finely saccharoidal quartz, containing much pyrite, in which alteration to melanterite has begun.

Parallel with the general trend of this vein, and adjacent to it, on the northwest, is a dike of hornblende-schist, of from 150 to 200 yards wide, in all particulars similar to those, passing through, and north of, Dahlonega. Its trend is N. 50° E., and the dip of the schists, 50° to the southeast.