The ore consists of (1) irregularly interlocking white to light- gray quartz, white to pale-pink calcite, and very minor amounts of sulphides and free gold, and (2) schist partly replaced by some or all of these minerals. The principal sulphide noted was chalcopyrite, much of which shows peacock tarnishes. Enargite (?). also was noted, and magnetite was seen in one specimen. Free gold occurs locally in irregular masses in the quartz. The ore is usually massive and compact, showing no crustification or drusy cavities. It generally forms bands or lenses parallel with the folia of the schist. The contacts between ore and schist are as a rule extremely sharp, in places cutting across the folia of the schist, and sharp fragments of schist are here and there inclosed by ore. Elsewhere there are transitions, parallel to the trend of the folia of the schist, from typical sericite schist wall rock to a grayer rock less finely schistose, and from this rock to a typical assemblage of ore minerals. The microscope shows that the transition rock differs from the typical wall rock only in its larger content of quartz and calcite and in that the sericite bands are narrower and more widely spaced. It is believed to have been formed by the partial replacement of the sericite schist wall rock by calcite and quartz. Locally this replacement preceded the development of the lens-shaped bodies of massive ore, for in some places these cut sharply across the folia of the gray, partly altered schist. Abundant grains of pyrite, most of them less than 1 millimeter in diameter, were noted in some of the schist close to and in sharp contact with the massive ore, but pyrite is entirely absent from other schist similarly situated and was not noted in the gray, partly replaced schist that forms a transition product be- tween ore and unaltered wall rock. As a rule, pyritization of the wall rock is local and inconspicuous.

In general, the relations of ore to wall rock appear to indicate a certain amount of replacement of the sericite schists by ore-forming solutions penetrating along the folia of the schist in the early stages of the mineralization, followed by an actual prying apart and in places disruption of the folia in the later stages. Whether this dis- ruption was a result of injection of the ore-bearing solutions under pressure or of the forces of crystal growth is uncertain.

The richer parts of the ore are typified by an exposure at the bottom of the incline, where a number of subparallel lenses of quartz, calcite, and metallic minerals together constitute about two-thirds of the 5-foot face. The individual lenses, which range from a few inches to a foot in width, are separated by sericite schist and by quartzose and calcitic schist formed by the partial replacement of the sericite schist. It is characteristic of the deposit that comparatively wide bodies of ore may decrease greatly in width or pinch out completely in very short distances parallel to the trend of the vein. For example, 6 feet along the strike of the vein from the 5-foot exposure just described, which was about two-thirds ore, practically all the vein quartz had pinched out, the entire face being sericite schist.

A mill at the mine is operated by water power obtained by damming Talladega Creek. The mill equipment consists of a jaw crusher, ten 750-pound stamps (2 batteries) dropping 75 to 80 times a minute, two 6-foot amalgamation plates, and tables covered with blankets. The capacity of the mill is about 25 tons in 24 hours. The value of the precious metals recovered is reported to average about $4 to the ton of ore treated. Concentration is not attempted. The bullion recovered from the amalgam is shipped directly to the mint. The mint returns from 32 lots of bullion show that the ratio of gold to silver in the bullion ranges from 0.6 to 1 to 60 to 1; in most shipments the gold is in excess of 10 gold to 1 silver.