Pyrites.
Immense mines of pyrites are worked in Louisa County, and the
products shipped North, for the use of sulphuric acid manufactories. So
important has this industry become, that branch railroads have been run
to the mines from the main line of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad.
Other large deposits exist in the mountain regions bordering on North
Carolina, but need a railroad for their development. New veins of this,
the "fool's gold" of the Colonies, are being discovered, and developed,
and opened in different parts of the State. Some are valuable for the
gold and other metals found in these sulphurets, and this by-product
taken in connection with the large quantity of sulphur found in all, and
the increasing demand for sulphuric acid, is likely to turn this into a true
gold so far as sure profit is concerned. Two fully developed and profitably
worked mines are near Tolersville (Mineral City), in Louisa County. One,
the Armenius mine, has been sunk over four hundred feet, and the Crenshaw,
the other mine, though not so deep, is fully worked. The by-product
secured is native copper ore. Sulphuric acid is made in the City of
Richmond, in two chemical works, for use in the manufacture of fertilizers.
Large quantities are shipped North from the Armenius mines. Valuable
veins of pyrite, bearing gold in fairly paying quantities, and probably
other metals, have been found at other points in Louisa County, and in
Spotsylvania, Fluvanna, Goochland, Buckingham and some other counties.
