SHINING ROCK WILDERNESS, NORTH CAROLINA.

The Shining Rock Wilderness, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Haywood County, North Carolina, is underlain by complexly folded mica gneiss and schist of Precambrian age. A mineral-resource survey determined that two commodities, quartz as a source of silica (SiO//2) and gneiss and schist suitable for common building stone and crushed rock, are present in large quantities. Demonstrated resources of silica occur at Shining Rock Mountain and small amounts of sheet muscovite (mica) and scrap mica are present at about 10 localities. Until deep drilling is done to test the results of the seismic studies, no estimate of the potential for gas can be made, but the presence of gas cannot be totally discounted.