MANGANESE Composition.-Manganese is a metallic element which has about the same specific gravity as iron. It is used principally as an alloy with other metals. Spiegeleisen, an alloy of iron and manganese, contains under 20 per cent manganese, and ferro manganese has from 20 to 90 per cent. Other alloys are with bronze, copper, aluminum, zinc, tin, lead, magnesium and silicon. The manganese ores found in Arkansas have been principally oxides of manganese known as psilomelane, braunite, hausmanite, pyrolusite and wad. The first three are the most commonly encountered. These ores generally contain from 45 to 52 per cent of manganese and sometimes slightly over 60 per cent. Uses.—Manganese oxide is used widely in the chemical trades as a coloring agent in cloth printing and dyeing, making of pottery, bricks and paint, and in the manufacture of dry cells. The Arkansas ores are used almost entirely in the manufacture of ferro manganese, spiegeleisen, and manganese pig ore. The price of manganese ore depends upon the percentage of metallic manganese in it. The present price (November, 1926) is between 32c and 34c for each percent of manganese per long ton of ore containing 47 per cent manganese, and 38c to 40c for each per cent of manganese per long ton of ore containing from 54 to 55 per cent metallic manganese. Occurrence. Manganese is found in several localities in the State, by far the most important of which is the area known as the Batesville area of about 100 square miles, located in northwest Independence County, Southeast Izard County and northeast Stone County. Other localities of less importance are in Pulaski, Saline, Garland, Hot Spring, Montgomery, Pike and Polk Counties. These last mentioned localities are known as the West Central Arkansas district. There have been as many as 100 manganese mines in operation in the Independence district and five have been reported in the Montgomery, Pike and Polk County district. In addition to these, there have been over 100 prospects in the Batesville area and nearly an equal number in the West Central Arkansas district. The Batesville District In the Batesville district the manganese ores are found in irregular fragments and nodules which have probably been concentrated from the Cason shale formation of Ordovician age. These lumps of ore are found in this shale and in residual clay beneath the shale. Both the clay and the manganese ore nodules are probably residual products of the decomposition of the Cason shale. The West Central Arkansas ores are found in pockets scattered through the Arkansas novaculite formations which are probably of Devonian age. The West Central Arkansas deposits, however, although containing large amounts of ore are not sufficiently concentrated to permit profitable mining during normal prices of manganese The available reserves of manganese ore in the Batesville district have been described by H. G. Miser of the U. S. Geological Survey in a detailed report on the Batesville district in 1922 as follows: "An estimate of the quantity of available manganese ore of all grades in this region, where mining is not preceded by systematic prospecting, is difficult to make. Of the 180 deposits examined, about half contain an estimated available reserve of 200 tons or less. Only about one-third contains about 1,000 or more tons and only a few contain more than 5,000 tons, though certain of these contain many thousand tons. A small number of projects and mines, however, were not visited, and these and the unexplored deposits may increase considerably the reserve. The deposits of the region perhaps include at least 250,000 tons of available ore containing 40 per cent or more manganese and 170,000 tons available ore containing less than 40 per cent manganese." The West Central Arkansas District The managanese ore in Pulaski, Saline, Garland, Hot Spring, Pike and Polk Counties is found as irregular veins and pockets which are scattered through the novaculite beds. The ores are usually found in joint cracks or occur in brecciated novaculite. The ore bodies vary from a fraction of an inch to four feet in thickness, but are usually considerably less than four feet. A portion of the ore is found near the top of the Arkansas novaculite formation, although some deposits are found near the base (see page 240 for distribution of novaculites in Arkansas). On account of the hardness of the novaculite, mining is usually difficult and costly. R. A. F. Penrose* makes the following statement relative to the economic possibilities of the west central Arkansas district : "The aggregate amount of manganese in the region is undoubtedly large, but it is distributed over an extensive area, and in almost all places it is hopelessly scattered through the rock in small nests and seams. If these nests and seams were in sufficient quantities the rock might be crushed and the ore concentrated by washing, but the pockets containing them are too small to permit the expense of machinery. It is a popular idea that the ore will increase in quantity at a depth, but there is absolutely no reason to expect this, as such deposits are just as likely, and sometimes even more likely, to become poorer at a depth than they are to improve. "From the nature of the deposit it is to be expected that the ore at a depth is, at the very best, no more plentiful than in the surface outcrops of the so-called "lodes"-that is, that it exists as a series of pockets separated by greater or less distances of barren rock. With very few exceptions the pockets of ore seen on the surface cannot be worked at a profit, and in the rare cases where a small profit might be made the amount would not be enough to pay for sinking through the barren rock that separates the pockets from each other. The intervening thickness of barren rock is much greater than the depth of any one pocket." H. D. Miser in U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin No. 650c, "Manganese Deuosits of the Caddo Gap-De Queen Quadrangle, Arkansas." makes the following statement concerning the possibilities of the region: "Ores from a number of manganese deposits, as shown by the chemical analyses on page 82, contain a sufficiently high percentage of manganese (40 per cent or more) and a sufficiently small percentage of silica (8 per cent or less) for the manufacture of ferromanganese, but most of the ores of which analyses are available exceed the phosphorus limit (0.20 per cent) for this purpose. The prices paid for medium grade ores used in the metallurgic industries are relatively stable and generally range between $8.00 and $1.350 a ton, being governed by the content of manganese, phosphorus and silica. The price has, however, steadily increased since the outbreak of the war in Europe. Manganese ores sold in 1915 for $14.40 to $22.05 a ton, and in 1916 the maximum price was $32.50. This increase in price has accordingly increased the possibility of the economic recovery of the managenese ores of the area herein described. but some deposits that might now be worked at a profit will not pay *Arkansas Geological Survey Report on "Manganese," by R. A. F. Pensore. to work after the price of ore again becomes normal, which will probably be within a year after the conclusion of peace. "The wad and other low grade oxides could be used for giving bricks a chocolate color. The pyrolusite, manganite, and psilomelane could be used to produce the spots of some varieties of speckled bricks and mixed with red-burning clay fo rbrown bricks, and with buff-burning clay for gray bricks.' Producers of Manganese Walter H. Denison, Cushman, Ark. Arkala Manganese Ore Company, Batesville, Ark. T. F. Shell, Batesville, Ark. Shell & Beatty, Batesville, Ark. Miller & Rheinhart, Batesville, Ark. Miller & Rinehart's Concentrating Plant (Manganese), Batesville, Cushman District The manganese mines together with their output of 1925 which were operating in 1926 are, according to the State Severance Tax Report, as follows: |