Ganister
Ganister occurs in the hills of Alexander and Union Counties and is a loosely consolidated, granular material consisting of irregular particles up to about an inch in diameter or of masses of material readily disintegrated into such particles. The particles are composed mainly of fine crystalline quartz. Ganister is white, cream, light yellow, or red and occurs in deposits up to 25 feet or more thick. Relatively small tonnages of the light colored ganister are now used, principally in making refractories, but ganister is said to have been more widely used in that field in the past. It is produced from underground mines. Some red ganister, or ganister like material, mined from open pits has been used for road surfacing.