The discovery of a valuable material at their SQP Industries Inc. Sharpsville foundry has turned Snyder Group into the steel industry's version of Jed Clampett, sort of.

In the classic 1960's TV sit-com, "The Beverly Hillbillies," the lead character is the patriarch of a poor family scratching out an existence in the Ozark Mountains. Lyrics to the series' ballad played at the start of every episode tell the rest of the tale:

"Then one day he was shootin' at some food, and up through the ground came a bubblin' crude. Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea. Well, the first thing you know, ol' Jed's a millionaire. Kinfolk said, 'Jed move away from there!' ''

In Snyder Group's case they didn't find oil but slag valued at nearly $13 million and they have no intention of moving.

Of course there are other differences to the story. Owning scrap yards at Neville Island and Brownsville, Pittsburgh-based Snyder Group could hardly be described as hillbillies or poverty stricken.

Owned by brothers Jim, Dan and Charles Snyder, the family enterprise bought the bankrupt SQP for $1.5 million in February 2001 after it had closed due to dwindling sales. Producing ingot molds for the steel industry, the employee-owned Sharpsville company saw new steelmaking technology whittle away demand for their product.

At first, Snyder Group tried to make a go of it by reopening the plant in April of that year and producing ingot molds, said Don Lacey, SQP's chief operating officer. But American steel mills were battered by rock bottom steel prices and demand for ingot molds vaporized.

"That sort of took the wind out of the sails,'' Lacey said. "So many of those steel mills went bankrupt ... many of them will never come back on line. There was too much damage done to the steel industry.''

By last October Snyder Group had had enough and closed the plant permanently and laid off the remaining 40 workers. As they were kicking around a long-term plan for the plant and the surrounding 50 acres, Lacey said the company began getting phone calls from those familiar with the plant's history. All of them were asking what was in the works for the mountains of slag next to the foundry.

That confounded executives.

"We had no idea,'' Lacey said. "We told people 'We're sitting on what?' ''

At first a little skeptical, Snyder Group executives trekked to property they owned next to the foundry. To the naked eye it appeared to be nothing more than neglected land. Digs were ordered after seeing signs of slag which had worked its way to the surface test.

Borings showed beneath the dirt was literally a hill of slag with a 50-foot-thick layer spread over 20 acres. When told of its estimated $13 million value, more than 8 times what they paid for company, Snyder Group realized they had hit pay dirt.

"If anybody had known this slag was here, they wouldn't have gotten it out of bankruptcy for what we got it for,'' Lacey said.

A byproduct of steelmaking, slag was dumped at the site for decades in the early- and mid-20th century by Shenango Inc., forerunner of SQP. Shenango Inc.'s blast furnace stopped operating in the '60s, Lacey said. Dumping slag next to a mill was common practice in those days and over time many of the sites faded from memories.

"There are slag dumps in the country that are older than the hills,'' he said, somewhat hyperbolically.

Used as an aggregate in road construction, slag currently fetches about $6.75 a ton.

Snyder Group immediately dug into the slag business. Farming out the duties of excavating the slag, Snyder Group bought screening equipment to sift and sort the slag. Employing a half-dozen former SQP employees, the operation runs one shift Monday through Friday and expects to run year-round.

"As things get rolling we hope that changes,'' Lacey said. "We want to bring people back to work for us,'' Lacey said.

He estimates there's eight to 10 years of slag mining work. As for the foundry there's no chance it will ever be fired up again. Instead, the 50 acres, which is part of the Keystone Opportunity Zone, will be developed for new businesses. Businesses in a Pennsylvania KOZ are exempt from most state and local taxes.

"This acreage will probably be turned into an industrial park,'' Lacey said.

Although the Snyders would rather have made their fortune by operating the foundry, Lacey said no one is complaining.