Mining for Feldspar

Think for a minute what it must have been like when they were mining the Havey back in the early 1900's. There were no dump trucks or excavators or air drills that they were using. It was mostly manual labor. At the Havey he had a crew of 10 Italian laborers working the mine for feldspar (feldspar is the coating that is on porcelain fixtures and china plates). They were drilling by hammering a steel drill bit and turning it a quarter turn with each hit. I don't know how long this took to drill a hole but I am sure it was just this side of forever. After the blast, the material was broken up with hammers and put in wheelbarrows and the waste would be piled up out of the way or dumped over an embankment. The feldspar was then loaded and transported approximately 3 miles by horse and wagon to the Littlefield Station in Auburn and ground down and put on train cars. If this was what mining was today I would not be there. With the mechanical help that is available today, the work that I can do by myself on a part time basis is more than their whole crew of ten men could do. If you are interested in finding out more about Maine feldspar production there are several USGS publications available if you do a search under Google's book section.

Miners working for feldspar in the early 1900's location unknown. This would have been very typical of the Havey mine operation.   Photo from The Maine Feldspar Company promotional brochure

A large derrick used for lifting. Probably a pile of feldspar in the foreground.  
Photo from The Maine Feldspar Company promotional brochure

A larger operation with a steam drill. You can also see the basket of material being lifted by the derrick.  
Photo from The Maine Feldspar Company promotional brochure                 

Feldspar has no value in Maine at this point in time even though the product is still used. There are cheaper sources to get it. Many times the miners would avoid the areas where the minerals were because the feldspar was of poorer quality in these areas. If you love Maine minerals and/or gemstones, just be thankful that there was an active feldspar industry up through the 1950's in Maine exposing many of the things that we treasure today. Some of the minerals and gems were just a waste product to the feldspar mining. If not for the feldspar mining, many mineral and gem areas may not have been discovered. People are still finding great things in some of these old abandoned workings.