Keystone Ocher Co. Mine (C.K. Williams & Co. Mine #1), Fleetwood, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USAi

Regional Level Types
Keystone Ocher Co. Mine (C.K. Williams & Co. Mine #1)	Group of Mines
Fleetwood	- not defined -
Berks County	County
Pennsylvania	State
USA	Country

FLEETWOOD PLANT OF THE KEYSTONE OCHER COMPANY

The Fleetwood plant of the Keystone Ocher Company is the only one, besides the adjoining plant of C. K. Williams, which was in active operation when visited. It lies 1 1/4 miles northeast of Fleetwood, Pa., and three-eighths of a mile from the Philadelphia and Reading Railway. The product of both of the plants is hauled in wagons to the railroad.

The deposit is opened up through two shafts within 60 feet of each other, one being used as a hoisting and pump shaft and the other as an air and timber shaft. The former is 70 feet deep and extends down to the lower level, from which all the ocher is hoisted. The method of carrying on the underground work is to drift along and follow the pockets and stringers of ocher, mining them out in stopes or breasts, and then to drift indefinitely until other deposits are found.

The approximate layout of the underground workings. The drifts or gangways are 6 to 7 feet high and 5 feet wide, being provided with four-piece round timbering to resist the squeezing action of the clay. Lagging of sawed slabs is laid close on the tops and sides, and the bottom is plank floored for the passage of wheelbarrows. Chutes are provided, as shown (fig. 34), for dumping the ocher from the upper to the lower level, whence it is wheeled to the.shaft and hoisted. The stopes are turned off where pockets are encountered, and. if their size demands it they are timbered up with square sets.

The ocher occurs either as small masses in pockets in the clay, or interstratified with the clay. It is separated by hand from the clay in the mine, and the clay is used to fill up the old workings. The impurities in the ocher are particles of quartzite, cherty limestone, flakes of shaly limestone, and fragments and nodules of limonite. The limonite is picked out on the surface and is saved until a sufficient quantity for shipment has accumulated. No bed rock has been encountered in the mine workings, but a well drilled down the hoisting shaft struck loose bowlders of sandstone at 257 feet, which prevented drilling deeper.

The method of treating the ocher for the market is essentially the same as the methods previously described for the Reading plant, but the equipment is more complete.

The ocher is hoisted from the mine by an engine hoist and then dumped into a log washer, from which it passes^to a series of 28 floating troughs. These troughs are 14 to 16 feet long and 13 inches square in cross section. The fine sand is separated out in the first 12 or 13 troughs, and the final separation is accomplished in the smaller set of 15, after which the mixture is run through a long trough to the settling ponds. Here it is left to partly dry as a preliminary to its transfer to the drying sheds.

After it has thoroughly dried in the sheds it is ground in French buhr mills as the final treatment for the market.

The best sienna from this plant brings from $30 to $40 per ton, and the washed ocher brings $15 to $18 per ton.

The land is usually leased for a period of fifteen or twenty years, one year or six months being allowed for exploration before the lease is executed finally. A royalty is paid to the owner either at a nominal rate or according to the amount of ocher taken out at a fixed price per ton.

WILLIAMS PLANT AT FLEETWOOD.

The C. K. Williams plant adjoins that of the Keystone Ocher
Company just described and differs very little from it.

It has been run for four years under the present management, but for the past twenty-seven years it has been worked intermittently, chiefly for the iron ore, which is found in the upper levels and which is now practically exhausted. Old drifts and shafts show that considerable work was formerly done on the property in working out the limonite deposits.

The present hoisting shaft extends vertically downward 91 feet to the bottom of the lower level and 126 feet to the bottom of the sump, which receives all the mine water and is pumped out at intervals.

Fifty feet from the main hoisting shaft there is an air shaft 46 feet deep, connecting with the upper level of the mine. The underground workings are similar to those of the Keystone Company, but are larger. The two levels are connected by chutes and by an old shaft which has been retimbered and repaired for the passage of the miners.

The washing and drying plant consists of a log washer, 26 floating troughs 16 feet long, four mud dams, and four drying sheds.

The ocher and iron ore occur in pockets, the ore predominating in the upper levels and the ocher in the lower, with clay between. The deposit seems to be in the form of a horseshoe extending along the hill, with its greatest dimension parallel to the hill. The bands of iron ore, clay, and ocher appear to run horizontally. The underlying rock is quartzite, which outcrops along the ridge with a dip of 75° toward the bottom of the hill.

The ocher found at this mine is of three grades, as follows:
1. "Gold dust," called No. 1, the purest variety.
2. "Gravel ocher," which is good ocher but contains particles of limonite that have to be washed out.
3. Clay and ocher, which is the poorest variety and contains pieces of chert up to 2 feet in diameter. The clay is red, yellow, white, and purplish and is of no value.

The time taken to treat the ocher varies, but in general it takes a month to completely fill the mud dams and three weeks more for the material to dry sufficiently to permit being shoveled. When it has dried to the consistency of a stiff mush it is put in the drying sheds, where it has to be left one month more before it is in condition to grind. The material is finished at the company's mills at Easton, Pa.