Location: US 15 at Buckhorn Rd., north of Oxford
County: Granville
Original Date Cast: 2021
The Tungsten Queen Mine in Vance County, the only tungsten mine east of the Rocky Mountains, was once the largest producer of tungsten in the United States. Tungsten ore can be hubnerite, scheelite, or wolframite, but in North Carolina it appears usually as hubnerite in a white quartz matrix. It has the highest melting point of any known metal (6152 degrees Fahrenheit) and is resistant to corrosion. It was used for incandescent lightbulbs and in products such as high-speed drill bits, television tubes, and armor-piercing projectiles.
Joseph Hyde Pratt, a mineralogist then working with the North Carolina Geological Survey and later the state mineralogist, noted the existence of tungsten in the state in 1901. In a report he recorded, “Wolframite has been reported as occurring in some quantity on the Cheek farm, near Henderson, Vance County.” The site is not identified but is in the same general area as the Tungsten Queen Mine site.
In 1942 Joseph and Richard Hamme discovered tungsten ore while prospecting for gold in northern Vance County. The brothers mined the hubnerite ore and sold it commercially for about a year before selling the operation to Haile Gold Mining Company. Haile expanded the Vance County operation and in 1945 formed a partnership with General Electric. The mine was named Tungsten Queen. As underground mining began, miners’ experience in working mica and feldspar were brought in from the Spruce Pine Mining District. Single men lived in a bunkhouse, families lived in huts built from surplus barracks from Camp Butner, and company officials lived in cinderblock homes that still stand adjacent to the mine site. The miners formed their own church, Tungsten Baptist, which remains an active congregation in the area. The mining operation was integrated, with white and black miners working together and relying on one another in the dangerous day-to-day work. They were a close-knit community, many related by blood or marriage, and many remained in Vance County even after the mine closed.
At its peak the Tungsten Queen mine employed over 500 men. The main vein was about seven miles long and the underground workings extended over a mile and were up to 1,500 feet deep. Market conditions for tungsten began to fluctuate in the late 1950s and the mine closed from June 30, 1958 to June 1, 1960. Market conditions again forced closure from early 1963 until 1968, when Ranchers Exploration Company acquired the property. Ranchers expanded the Tungsten Queen’s underground workings to about 35 miles. Despite expansion and development, Tungsten Queen closed for good around August 1971. For about 25 years, Tungsten Queen was a major producer of a mineral that was vital to the war effort and to so much of everyday life in America.
Sources:
Mildred Gwin Andrews, “Tungsten: The Story of an Indispensable Metal,” The Tungsten Institute, 1955.
Sam E. Phifer, “Gold Miners Become Tungsten Miners,” ICMJ Prospecting and Mining Journal, Vol 70 #6, 2001.
P. Albert Carpenter III, “Metallic Mineral Deposits of the Carolina Slate Belt, North Carolina,” N.C. Dept. of Natural Resources, Geological Survey Section Bulletin No. 84, 1976.
“Tungsten Deposits of Vance County, North Carolina and Mecklenburg County, Virginia,” U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Geological Survey Bulletin #948-A, 1947.
Jeff B. Chaumba, Jeffrey C. Reid, and Johnathon C. Parker, “Hamme (Tungsten Queen) Mine Tailings, Vance County, North Carolina: Chemistry of Potentially Recoverable Huebnerite-Wolframite and Sulfide Minerals.” Southeastern Geology, Vol 51 No. 1, March 2015.
“Soil Survey of Vance County, North Carolina,” U/S. Dept. of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service in cooperation with the N.C. Agricultural Research Service and Vance County Board of Commissioners, 1980.
Numerous local newspaper articles, including Rocky Mount Telegram (Aug. 19, 1943; March 23, 1944; July 10, 1950, Feb. 1, 1954, and Aug. 11, 1971).