Extraordinary topaz‐replacement body in the Brewer Mine, South Carolina

A large body of massive topaz forms a part of the gold‐bearing lode at the Brewer Mine, South Carolina. This gold‐mine was opened 100 years ago and merits the distinction of being one of the early gold‐discoveries of the Southern Appalachian Region. The Brewer Mine is located near Jefferson, in Chesterfield County, near the northern boundary of South Carolina, and on the eastern edge of the Piedmont Province.

The country rock is described by J. T. Pardee and C. F. Park, Jr., (Gold‐deposits of the Southern Appalachians, U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper, in preparation) as a quartz‐sericite schist that locally preserves the structure of a fine‐grained, waterlaid tuff, probably a rhyolite,from which it was derived. Exposures of granite that intrude the schist appear on the north and west at distances of a mile to a mile and a half.