Bulletin No. 67 March 19, 1923. , 9 ¥ an rrr R AT RA AH 7 iy T f vit ge } N IV WE, £foi ri iy 6S i tT: COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA bT OREN Teams DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS James F, Woodward, Secretary BUREAU OF OPOGRAPHIC AND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY George H. Ashley, State Geologist LEAD AND ZINC ORES NEAR PHOENIXVILLE, CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANTA. By Benjamin LeRoy Miller. Location. All the lead and-‘zine mines in Chester anc Montgomery counties are near Phoenixville, which is 25 miles west of Philadelphia on Schuylkill River. Most of the mines are two miles south of Phoenix- ville near Pickering Creek; two mines are four‘miles east of Phoenixville between Perkiomen Creek, Mine Run, and Audubon (formerly Shannonville), in Montgomery County. The map on page 12 shows the loeation of the mines. With the excention of 2. little sporndic development very recently, no mining has been done here in 50 years. ‘The underground workings are inaccessible and there are ho places where the lodes can be seen at the surface, History of Operations, Lead mining in this district began about 1808 and there is Cefinite informration that "The Perkiomen Mining Company" wes mining Jesd ore in’ 1609, Ore was first discovered along Mine Run, one-half mile northwest of the present village of Audubon and an 80-foot shaft was sunk. The company drifted 56 feet along the vein and crove 2 drainage tunnel 356 feet from the bottom of the shaft to its outlet near the creek, Considernble ore was found but owing to misunder- standings among individuals the works were abandonec in 1810. There is 2 break in the record of mining between 1826 and 1851, but we learn that when in 1835-36 standard weights and measures of Americon metals were ordered by Congress for the U. S. Treasury the zinc used was obtained from a mixture of the Perkiomen and Franklin Furnace, N. J. ores. This seems to have been the first utilization of Maeiot LS alif 1eatee A OAS ‘ ‘ e rc M4 : } x j in 1 \) 3 i ve a4 " 4 i ” 4 { { \ ’ Ms i ; j A : , } 1 ny, au ¥ ' eh ‘ TO Aa ‘ ' Renae he\ id a Faay Wa Mi) vi \ 1 \ han aie 4 a b ‘ 1} , i i b a \ { j 5) | i 1 Or ‘ t > 7 j ‘ \ i + 4 4) i : ‘A f ‘ vy pay } h f bs s P A * i ul . i te “iy eA f , ely ’ - 4 U ‘ i 4 cy v% , : ; 4 ih “i } " ; aes Pe ae The iih SY 4 : "4 f Pe ANE ir «J ye American zine ores, Up to that time lend and zine ores had been worked solely for the lead content. On February 15, 1851 2 charter was granted The Perkiomen Con- solidated Mining Company. ‘The company sreanized "for the purpose of mining, selline, or smelting copper and lead ores, and erecting the necessary buildings and machinery for such purposes, and 2s such, Shall heave power to lense or purchase the Perkiomen and Ecton mines, and certain other mines and mining lands,-and 211 other estates of what kind soever, real, personal or mixed, situated in the counties of Montgomery and Chester." ‘The company was capitalized for #&300,000, On March 19, 1851, the capital stock had been subscribed ane a meeting of the stockholders was held in Philadelphia. About this time or perhaps a little earlier, lead and Zine ores were discovered along Pickering Creek, south of Phoenixville. In 1850, the General Assembly passed acts of incorporation for the Chester County Mining Company, and for the Montgomery County Mining Company. The Wheatley Mining Company was also incorporated about the same time, for it started mining operations esrly in 1851, Between 1851 and 1855 lead and zine minins was actively carried on by & wumber of different companies in the two mining districts of Montgomery and Chester counties. From 1855 to 1865 ind perhaps a few years later some work was done on different properties at intervals, During the most active period more than a dozen separate and distinct lodes were prospected and considerable work was done on most of them. The lode most extensively worked was the Wheatley, Three companies, the Wheatley, Brookdale, and Phoenix operated on this lode bupyianwieba consolidated under the name.of the Pennsylvania Lead Company. A later consolidation was effected about 1864 in which the New ‘ York ana Boston Silver Lead Company acouired the Wheatley, Brookdale, Charlestown, Morris, and perhaps other properties, Considerable work was done in 1864 end 1865 in reopening the Wheatley and Brookcale mines, The date when work stopped is not known, but it is believed that all lead and 4ine minirg in both Montgomery and Chester counties had been abandoned before 1870, In 1918 the Eastern ifining and Milling Company leased the property on which the Chester County lode is located, and dewatered and retimbered part of the old workings, Some stopine and additional drifting was done and a small mill was built. Work was continued for about two years and some high erade ore was shipped. The Pennsylvania Lead and Zine Company and the Great Eastern Mining and Menufacturing Company are now trying to raise money for reopening some of these old mines. 4 dey Pagt wt cart wane Mite yt 7 aA ele @ ve Cr CN ¥° thts iW Rp ee F ti \ “ . 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"The several veins on the property of the Perkiomen Mining Company are confined entirely to the sandstone. Their main, though not sole metalliferous ingredients, is therefore some of the combina- tions or copper; a small amount of galena and the oxidized ores of lead occur in them however, They are made up of quartz, sulphate of Baryta or heavy spar, and gossan or ferruginous matter, with yellow copper ore (chalcopyrite, yielding, when pure, 34.5 ner cent or copper) and green carbonate (malachite, yielding about fifty-six per cent of metal,) disseminated throughout. ‘Quartz is the predominating vein-stone. Zinc blende occurs, at times, in them in very considerable quantities. The vein on the property of the Perkiomen Mining Company differs in no wise from the other veins in the same formation in the composition and structure of its vein-stuff, consisting, like all the Other cupriferous lodes of the district, of cuartz, heavy spar and gossan with malachite and copper pyrites. It var ies in thickness from two to twenty feet. While it has show itself in many portions exceedingly rich, the ores appear to be very irregularly disseminated, occurring in heavy bunches and masses rather than being uniformly distributeds, The operations thus far conducted in this vein snow that the limits of such masses of ore are marked by the occurrence of large deposits of blende, The yield of ore seems to have been about one ton per cubic fathom, and the yield of refined Conye about 19 per cent, or 380 pounds per ton of ores "A mass of cupriferous minerals 60 feet long and 18 feet wide on the firtty fatnom level east of the Shaft and increasing in size cown- ward had the apvearance of highly »vroductive ground. Ore carrying about 8 per cent copper is reported as remaining in abundance in the stoves on the 10 and 20-fathom levels, West of the shaft on the forty fathom level is a good lode 200 feet long that will yield a large amount of 8 or 10 per cent ores ‘'Phere is also whole ground from five hundred to six hundred feet long, between the Perkiomen and Ecton mines, as yet undeveloped, and there is no reason why this piece of new eround Should not be as profitable as any ground in the Perkiomen mine, as there are shafts on each end or it, and there is no other expense required but to drive the levels to open it for stoping." Ecton Ifine. A short distance south of the Perzxiomen mine is the old Ecton mine. This mine seems to have been located on a similar but distinct lode. Few detailed descriptions of it are available. The mine dumps woulc seem to indicate that a fairly large amount of work was done there, ‘On ‘lay 1, 1853 at the 54-fathom level the lode was "three feet wide, composed of quartz, spotted with copper pyrites,” and at the 66 fathom level it was from 3 to 8 feet wide with "a very promising appearance, but at present poor.” Little or nothing is known of the lode or mine workings at-Port Kennedy loce, Shannonville South lode, United mine, Morris mine, anc Jug Hollow mine, SE tachi * » s A he x , As poture Tr es Sis * | +) mL A ik } aver Deka : g é ” * ‘ # bhi : : i ; . , ts. ' ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ . Fi hes ahs ra \ Fi . y 4 : 1 + , 5 = of j ¥ ; y t 4 a ‘ f ; : f e : e : ‘ 4 ry 7 ¥ J oT ea ; <' v ¢ 4 $ : + by ; ee bie ’ f ’ 5 ae } f ; 14 Se l ; 3 } j r J mY } : ite y ‘ a ‘ w hs ltt Ak hey aes \ -~ Lf , r ’ y hh ny aie ‘ eS ‘ ‘ rN Mae > t tf Dp ‘ f t . 4 * wa 4 4 ‘ AG . Ay ’ . > Hien bP th : i r : rh ee Le , ’ ‘ i N oy, * ; SES yT a Koad! 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F ni fe 4 + — » . } 1 1 2 | f , : ’ oe. ‘ f i a ‘ ite es h A 1 4 P| P we) ty re _ be th Dat ‘ ho ig'f AGIA, ule ve uy ‘ 4 ? fe 4 ‘ . , oe * ay Y Ag Z ¢ ’ / . eye FT F; ie : ot ig { ry+ 4 I i ‘ae nS PATA fia’ ye 6, *. » ey io 4 ( <, Were: F Pi PS iy bag 7 A ha Ala, PART AE a vine F at LF ya i aed 4.) ‘ee Wale nag eee Selec rit § v Wheatley Hine. The most important mine of the mineral belt of Montgomery and Chester counties is the Wheatley mine. It has been daéscribed many times 2s have also the’minerals which were obtained there by mineralogists. The Wheatley, Brookdale, and Phoenix mines were all located on the heatley lode. This lode is 2% miles south of the business center of Pheenixville, Rogers in his Geology of Pennsylvania published in 1858 says that in May 1853 this remarkably regular silver-lead vein had been mined at intervals for about 3100 feet. The Wheatley and Brookdale engine- Shafts are 2076 feet apart on the lode. In the Wheatley mine the vein has been opened for 1111 feet and in the Brookdale mine for 456 feet, Between the two mines there remains 1501 feet in which the lode has not been proved. The vein is 1 to 2 feet wide, averaging 18 inches in the Wheatleymmine and 2 feet in the Brookdale mine. The dip of the vein is 68° to 76° and the lode seems to improve with depth. The fossan is silver-bearing and the proportion of galena increases with depth, This vein is of true igneous origin from a source deep within the.earth, It cuts three small dykes of trap rock and therefore is of later date than the dykes. The mines on the Wheatley lode yielded good ore from several Stopes and in 1853 good stoping ground remained untouched. The Wheatley lode has several branch veins which fork off and, for the most part, re-enter the lode, thus completely surrounding a block of wall rock, The branch veins are only a few inches thick but carry good lead ore, | Rogers says "I-cannot conclude this descrintion on the Wheatley and Brookdale lodes, and the two mines recently wrought in it, without expressing, in distinct terms, my conviction, that the whole vein, as far as opened, holds out a good promise of permanency and richness, or, in other words, ot fair remunerative profit, if efficiently and frugally wrought." The \Wheatley shaft at that time was 20 fathoms or 120 feet deep, Brookdale Mine, The vein in the:-Brookdale mine has the same character as that in the Wheatley mine, and there is every indication that it is one continuous lode. "Several:tons of marketable ore were obtained at no greater depth than some 20 feet; and below this level the vein steadily improves in richness in the shaft. On the whole, the indications of a productive vein in the lower levels of this mine seem encouraging." The shaft was 75 feet deep in 1853, Phoenix Mine. The Phoenix mine was also opened on the i/heatley lode but it seems to have been worked only to a slight extent. There was a 95-foot shaft on the property in May 1855 and was "developed to an extent of about 400 feet long.” This probably means that some Gcrifting was done on the vein. Chester County Mine, The Chester County lode lies just west of the Wheatley lode and strikes in such a direction as to intersect it if prolonged a few hundrec wards, Neither lode has been worked sufficiently to determine whether they do intersect. 5 i4 { i i pa ae ie een ots