The Elizabeth Mine was a
copper mine
Copper extraction is the multi-stage process of obtaining copper from its ores. The conversion of copper ores consists of a series of physical, chemical, and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ...
located on the town line between the Town of
Strafford and the Town of
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road (England), A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, coverin ...
, in
Orange County, Vermont
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,277. Its shire town (county seat) is the town of Chelsea. Orange County was organized on February 2, 1781, as an original county wit ...
.
The ore deposit was discovered in 1793, but mining did not start until 1809.
Open pit mining
Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock or minerals from the earth.
Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ro ...
and from 1886 underground mining was conducted. The mine produced up to of copper (1954) and was closed in 1957.
Due to
acid mine drainage
Acid mine drainage, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage (ARD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines and coal mines.
Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weatherin ...
the west branch of the
Ompompanoosuc River
The Ompompanoosuc River is a river, about 25 mi (40 km) long, in eastern Vermont in the United States. It is a tributary of the Connecticut River, which flows to Long Island Sound. According to the Geographic Names Information System, ...
was polluted. Since 2000 the
Environmental Protection Agency
Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations:
* Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia
* Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana)
* Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland)
* Environmenta ...
(EPA) and the
Vermont Agency of Natural Resources
Vermont () is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. According to the mo ...
have been developing a plan to clean up the area.
Geology
The ore deposits at the Elizabeth Mine represent classic examples of
sedimentary exhalative type deposition where hydrothermal fluids enter the marine environment and precipitate out minerals in a strataform ore body.
The ores are hosted in the strongly deformed Lower
Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...
Gile Mountain Formation (a grey to dark grey mica
schist
Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock generally derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock, like shale. It shows pronounced ''schistosity'' (named for the rock). This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a l ...
). The ore body at the Elizabeth Mine is a massive sulfide deposit consisting primarily of
pyrrhotite
Pyrrhotite (''Pyrrhus of Epirus, pyrrhos'' in Greek language, Greek meaning "flame-coloured"'')'' is an iron sulfide mineral with the formula Fe(1−x)S (x = 0 to 0.125). It is a nonstoichiometric compound, nonstoichiometric variant of FeS, th ...
and
chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite ( ) is a copper iron sulfide mineral and the most abundant copper ore mineral. It has the chemical formula CuFeS2 and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a Mohs scale, hardness of 3.5 to 4 ...
.
See also
*
Copper mining in the United States
In the United States, copper mining has been a major industry since the rise of the northern Michigan copper district in the 1840s. In 2017, the US produced 1.27 million metric tonnes of copper, worth $8 billion, making it the world' ...
*
List of Superfund sites in Vermont
References
External links
South Strafford's Elizabeth Copper Mine: The Tyson Years, 1880–1902 The Geology of the Elizabeth Mine, Peter Howard, 1969Geologic Map of the Elizabeth Mine Area (Stratford, VT)
*{{HAER , survey=VT-35 , id=vt0130 , title=Elizabeth Mine, Mine Road, South Strafford, Orange County, VT , photos=66 , dwgs=4 , data=89 , cap=11
Geology of Vermont
Copper mines in the United States
Historic American Engineering Record in Vermont
Superfund sites in Vermont
Mining in Vermont
Orange County, Vermont