Ore Knob Mine
A short distance after you enter into Ashe County from Alleghany County on NC-88, you pass by an interesting place known as Ore Knob.
Seems that a seam of rocks rich in the heavier metal elements normally found nearer the center of the earth and once under the sea, found their way nearer to the surface over the last 100 million years or so as a result of geological activity. Here's a piece of rock at Ore Knob that I believe is haemetite, an oxide of iron used for smelting iron metal.
Folks found the seam of metal ore there in the mid-1800's and began mining it as iron ore. About all that's left today of the iron works are the tailings shown here. When ground up, haemetite takes on this typical red color.
Apparently a blooming furnace was present at one time because I found this nice chunk of sponge iron at the site. It's a little rusty after laying around outside for the last 150 years!
To make iron metal, iron ore and charcoal are fed into the top of the furnace and air is pumped in. The carbon in charcoal likes oxygen better than does the iron ore. So in a two-step process the carbon combines with oxygen to produce heat and carbon monoxide and the carbon monoxide, in turn, draws oxygen from the iron oxide in a second chemical reaction to produce carbon dioxide and iron metal. The result is sponge iron, like that shown here, that gathers at the bottom of the furnace. It is subsequently reheated and forged into wrought iron.
Anyhow, the iron metal produced at Ore Knob was plagued by too many copper inpurities, So much so, in fact, that during the heyday of Ore Knob, the ore was mined for producing copper instead!
Eventually, five mine shafts were opened and here's the second one.
But, alas, better copper ore -- and more of it -- was found out west. The Ore Knob mines died a slow death, closing for good in 1962.
And, as a final note, $172,000 of our taxes have been spent by the Army Corps of Engineering to clean up the site because leachings from the tailings are polluting the streams in the surrounding area.
Seems that a seam of rocks rich in the heavier metal elements normally found nearer the center of the earth and once under the sea, found their way nearer to the surface over the last 100 million years or so as a result of geological activity. Here's a piece of rock at Ore Knob that I believe is haemetite, an oxide of iron used for smelting iron metal.
Folks found the seam of metal ore there in the mid-1800's and began mining it as iron ore. About all that's left today of the iron works are the tailings shown here. When ground up, haemetite takes on this typical red color.
Apparently a blooming furnace was present at one time because I found this nice chunk of sponge iron at the site. It's a little rusty after laying around outside for the last 150 years!
To make iron metal, iron ore and charcoal are fed into the top of the furnace and air is pumped in. The carbon in charcoal likes oxygen better than does the iron ore. So in a two-step process the carbon combines with oxygen to produce heat and carbon monoxide and the carbon monoxide, in turn, draws oxygen from the iron oxide in a second chemical reaction to produce carbon dioxide and iron metal. The result is sponge iron, like that shown here, that gathers at the bottom of the furnace. It is subsequently reheated and forged into wrought iron.
Anyhow, the iron metal produced at Ore Knob was plagued by too many copper inpurities, So much so, in fact, that during the heyday of Ore Knob, the ore was mined for producing copper instead!
Eventually, five mine shafts were opened and here's the second one.
But, alas, better copper ore -- and more of it -- was found out west. The Ore Knob mines died a slow death, closing for good in 1962.
And, as a final note, $172,000 of our taxes have been spent by the Army Corps of Engineering to clean up the site because leachings from the tailings are polluting the streams in the surrounding area.
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