From introduction: The need for fluorspar in the manufacture of open-hearth steel, hydrofluoric acid, aluminum, certain insecticides, refrigerants and airconditioning compounds, welding rods, 100-octane gasoline, and many other products necessary to the prosecution of World War II resulted in unprecedented demands for this commodity. To help increase production to meet these demands, the War Production Board in 1942 asked the United States Geological Survey to plan a comprehensive study of the fluorspar deposits in the United States. This study has been carried on in many parts of the country in cooperation with geologists and engineers of State and Federal agencies and with local producers.

From abstract: The central part of the Commodore fault system is in the western Kentucky fluorspar district, in Crittenden County, about 6 miles northwest of Marion. It has yielded from 30,000 to 40,000 tons of crude fluorspar and nearly 20,000 tons of zinc ore. Limestones, sandstones, and shales of the Meramec, Chester, and Pottsville groups of Carboniferous age crop out as relatively flat-lying beds, except near faults. The rocks are transected by high-angle normal faults. The main faulted zone is the Commodore fault system, which displaces the beds from 1,500 to 2,000 feet. The principal vein minerals are fluorite, calcite, smithsonite, sphalerite, and galena. Fluorite and smithsonite are the chief ore minerals, occurring as lenses along the faults. The mines have been worked since 1892, but most of the workings are caved or filled with water.

Abstract: The Moore Hill fault system in the central part of the Kentucky-Illinois fluorspar field is about 26 miles long. Fluorspar has been produced from a part nearly 5 miles long, and since mining began in 1899 this system has yielded more than 300,000 tons of fluorspar. Lead and zinc sulfides commonly are found in the ore, but only rarely do they occur in sufficient quantity to be worth recovering. The productive part of the fault system was mapped and the properties and principal mines described. The high-angle normal faults of the system cut limestones, sandstones, and shales of Mississippian age. Stratigraphic displacements range from less than a foot to as much as 550 feet. The fluorspar bodies are sporadically distributed in veins of calcite and fluorite along the faults.

From abstract: Uranium assays of all the samples collected by the Geological Survey from the Chattanooga shale in east-central Tennessee and southern Kentucky from 1947 to 1949 are assembled here, and conclusions are drawn concerning the distribution of the uranium. The 1108 assays from 80 localities provide reasonably reliable information on the stratigraphic and regional variations of the uranium content.

From abstract: The White Oak quadrangle lies near the western edge of the eastern Kentucky coalfield and includes approximately 59 square miles of parts of Magoffin and Morgan Counties, Ky. The outcropping rocks are equivalent to most of the Breathitt formation of Pennsylvanian age. The regional southeast dip of the rocks is interrupted by the Irvine-Paint Creek fault, the Caney anticline, the Grape Creek syncline, and the Johnson Creek fault.

The following report covers a reconnaissance study that was made of radioactivity of coal and associated rock in the coal fields of eastern Kentucky and Logan Mingo counties, W. Va. Samples of coal, carbonaceous shale, marine shale, flint clay, and dike rock were discovered and radioactivity within these samples were measured.

Report discussing the U.S. Geological Survey's investigation aimed at finding a location with an abundance of black shale, and determining the amount of uranium in the shale.

Report discussing radioactivity measurements of samples of coal and associated rock that were collected during a reconnaissance study in the coal fields of eastern Kentucky, as well as Logan and Mingo counties, West Virginia.