Tri State Mining District: overview

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THE TRI STATE DISTRICT

MISSOURI KANSAS AND OKLAHOMA

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY CHAPTER

FRIENDS OF MINERALOGY

5th ANNUAL SYMPOSIUMReprinted from First Symposium


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TRI STATE DISTRICT

a short historical and geological overview

L. M. Nuelle

The Tri-state district is a world classzinc-lead district that overlaps theborders o f Missouri, Oklahoma, andKansas (Fig . 1). Walter Tingle firstmined lead in 1848, about two miles eastof Joplin; and in 1849 , Daniel Campbelldiscovered Lead within the city limits ofJoplin (Winslow, 1894). Almostsimultaneously, lead was discovered atGranby , Missouri; mining began thereon the Prairie Diggings in 1850(Winslow , 1894). It was not long until afull-fledge mining boom was underway .Production started in Oronogo in 1851(then known as Minersville),along

...... t .~~ ' '. w : - ~ MISSOUIII--- ,.,.. --l .

OKLAHOMA ~ lo . . . . . . . .Figure 1 Distribution o f zinc-lead deposits inthe Tri-state district (from Brockie et. al., 1967) .

Turkey Creek northeast o f Joplin, and onShoal Creek some five miles northwestof Neosho (Winslow , 1894) . By 1854 ,only some 862 tons o f lead had been

produced, but by 1857, some 4 ,000 tonsof lead had been produced (Winslow,1894) . n 1856 , Blow and Kennettdeveloped a large smelting facilityconsisting o f six scotch hearth furnaces;they alone smelted some 800 tons oflead by September o f that year . All in

E2 Mississippi Valley Chapter, FM 1,. Annual Symposium

all, the Granby area itself containedsome 300 shafts by 1860 , as well asseveral lead furnaces . Mining wassporadic during the Civil War , it wasinterrupted much of the time and themines were operated periodically byboth sides some o f the time . Followingthe war, mining once again resumed inearnest and by 1870 , there were over1,000 shafts in the district (Winslow ,1894) .

A significant milestone in the historyo f the Tri-state district was thedevelopment of a market for zinc, whichhad been to this time consideredworthless . The first shipment o f zinc orefrom the Joplin subdistrict is thought tobe in 1872. s sphalerite is five timesmore abundant than lead in the Tri-statedistrict, the rising value of zinc made thedeposits much more valuable and themines much more economic . s aresult , deeper shafts were now costeffective, and, mines could be easierfinanced leading to a rapid rate of minedevelopment. The extension of theFrisco railroad into the district in 1870was an added bonus that greatlyincreased the economics of the mines .

In 1880 , two other railroads began toservice the district accounting for aneven more rapid increase in the numbero f mines . Mines were now active in theolder districts as well as at Carterville

and Webb Cit y Mining also spread intoKansas, at Galena, just across the stateline . A small amount of lead and zinchad been mined in Oklahoma , in the late1800 s, at Peoria - just across theMissouri State line . But, in 1904 , orewas struck at Quapaw and at

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Lincolnville ; soon after, in 1906 and1907, ore was found at Hattenville (nowcalled Commerce) and the great Picherfield came into existence . Figure 2shows the locations of the mined areasrelative to geologic features and to

towns .The district started out as small mineson small plots of lands ; sometimes theplots were only the size of a house site .As time went on, 40-acre leases becamecommon . In the 1900's, small familyowned or privately owned companiesbegan to consolidate or be bought out bybigger companies . The secondarycarbonate ores were largely depleted,and , new milling techniques rendered the

sulfide ores more valuable . y the1920 ' s, large operations such as those ofAmerican Zinc and Eagle-Picher werethe norm . The period from 1920 to 1930were the golden days of the district(Stewart, 1986) . Production was strongthrough the 1950's but began to rapidlydecline in the 1960's . n 1970, the lastof the mines in the Picher-CommerceQuepaw subdistrict and in the BaxterSrpings-Treece subdistrict came to an

end .The Tri-state district orebodies are inMississippian rocks of Oseagean age;namely the Limestone and the WarsawFormation ; minor deposits occur in theoverlying Oseagean Reeds SpringFormation and even higher up in rocksof Chesterian age . Beds were assignedletter designations during the life of thedistrict ; the lettered beds alphabeticallyincrease in age downward through the

stratigraphic column . Importantproductive beds were the E, G , H, K(Warsaw Formation) beds, and the Mand N (Keokuk Limestone) beds; all arecherty limestone or alternating beds ofchert and limestone (Brockie et al.,1968) .

Orebodies have three basicgeometries . Circle deposits areassociated with paleosinkholesconsisting of filled curved fracturepatterns around the structure's margin;they have a circular appearance in planview and a truncated cone appearance incross section . Run deposits occupynarrow shear zones and have a longlinear appearance . Sheet grounddeposits are extensive, flat-lyingorebodies having grades that tatgenerally do not exceed much more than3 percent combined lead and zinc, abouthalf the grade of other deposits .

Most orebodies are zoned . A centraldolomitic core is surrounded by the main

ore mineralization, which inturn

issurrounded by jasperoid, and finally byunaltered limestone . Sphalerite andgalena, the only ore minerals arerecovered, are present in a ratio of about5:1

The Tri-state district is well knownfor its abundant mineral specimens .When a person thinks about collectingminerals, a range of sizes comes tomind . Size of mineral specimens vary

from micromounts through thumbnailsthrough miniatures through small cabinetsize all the way through large cabinetsize to giant size . One feature aboutmid-continent Mississippi Valley-typedeposits is that the collectible mineralstend to be of large size with not muchavailable in the way of thumbnails ormicro mounts . Well, such is true of theTri-state district . Specimens arenotoriously large in size . Except for a

few rare minerals , such as enargitecrystals , micro mounts are virtuallyabsent from the Tri-state district, s arethumbnails . Specimens tend to start inthe large miniature size with largecabinet size to museum size being mostcommon .

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..JP f o t t i i O - ----.t:

l : : . ~ a . : . I O ~I J ~ · ~ ;

~ = : : , = . . ~ . ~ . : : - - - ~ ·.

- ----. - t . . _...

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Figure 2 . Map showing mined areas in the Tri-state district nd their relation to towns and togeological features (f rom Brockie et al., 1968).

In fact one story goes as follows. Awell-known collector of thumbnail-sizeminerals , from Kansas City (who wonmany competitions with her fineminerals of that category) , wasrummaging through Rosenberry's (aprominent dealer in Tri-state minerals)shop . She kept complaining about thepoor condition of the thumbnailspecimens. Rosenberry just consideredthem to be crumbs of the larger,healthier'' specimens. She pointed out

damage to the thumbnails, the poor carethey were receiving at the shop, etc .Finally Rosenberry had enough and toldher that evidently the quality of hisplineral specimens was not up to herstandards so perhaps she should justleave . The point of the story is that thevast majority of thumbnail specimenswere merely fragments that were brokenoff larger, cabinet-size specimens;

thumbnail-size specimens just did notoccur in the vugs of the district. Iremember being in one cavity in thePicher field, during a Chink Ender tour ,and seeing a calcite crystal over four feetlong . Unfortunately it was in the back ofa vug and would have taken hours to get.We did not have that much time, and

E4 Mississippi Valley Chapter , FM 1 Annual Symposium

when Chink learned of it, he said it wastime to go to the next locality .

When one thinks of the Tri-statespecimens , large cubes of galena, bigdogtooth calcite crystals, and sphaleritecrystals the size of ping-pong balls cometo mind . About the only small crystalswere those of dolomite, chalcopyrite ,marcasite blades , and the micromountsize enargite crystals. Specimens oftenconsisted of combinations of minerals .It was not unusual to have galena,sphalerite , and calcite, on a matrix ofwhite to pink dolomite crystals sprinkledwith tiny chalcopyrite crystals .

Perhaps the most interesting aspect ofthe Tri-state mineral specimens is thevariety of calcite crystal habits and therelative abundance , and variety , oftwinned calcite crystals . The variety ofcalcite crystal types is so noteworthy thatFarrington (1900) published a report on

the topic . Other noteworth y mineraloccurrences include that of leadhillitecrystals (Pirson and Wells , 1894) , andthe fantastic calamine (hemimorphite)pseudomorphs after calcite (see Cook ,1997) . Lasmanis (1997) gives a goodgeneral overview of the Tri-state districtas well s of the Viburnum Trend .

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References cited:

Brockie , D . C ., Hare, E . H., Jr ., and Dingess , P . R , 1968, The geology and ore depositsof the Tri-state district ofMissouri Kansas, and Oklahoma, n Ore deposits of theUnited States 1933 - 1967 Graton-Sales volume) : New York, American Institute ofMining, Metallurgical , and Petroleum Engineers , p . 400-430 .

Cook, R. B ., 1997, Hemimorphite pseudomorphs after calcite , Joplin, Missouri : Rocksand Minerals , v . 72 , p. 384-386 .

Farrington, 0 C., 1900 , Crystal forms of calcite from Joplin, Missouri : Field Museum ofNatural History Geological Series I, p . 232-241.

Lasmanis , R., 1997, Tri-state and Viburnum Trend districts, an overview : Rocks andMinerals , v . 72 , p. 400-419 .

Stewart, D . R. , 1986 , A brief description of the historical , ore production , mine pumping ,and prospecting aspects of the Tri-state zinc - lead district ofMissouri , Kansas , andOklahoma, n Guidebook to the geology and en v ironmental concerns in the Tri-statelead-zinc district, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma : Association ofMissouri Geologists

rd annual meeting and field trip guidebook, p . 16-46 .

Winslow , A. , 1894 , Lead and zinc deposits: Missouri Geological Survey V . 6, 387 p .

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THE ECONOMIC GEOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL LEGACY OF THETRI-STATE ZINC-LEAD MINING DISTRICT

R. M. Coveney, Jr.

IntroductionThe world-class Tri -state mmmg

district of Missouri, Kansas, andOklahoma yielded a total of 400 milliontons of ore containing zinc, lead andvarious exotic trace metals during morethan one hundred years of operationswhich ceased around 1970 (Brockie etal ., 1968). In the process of mining, thedistrict produced superb crystals ofsphalerite, galena, calcite, and otherprimary ore and gangue minerals as well

as oxidized minerals from theweathering zone that are displayed bymuseums all over the world.Particularly noteworthy are the cubicgalena crystals, scalenohedral yellowcalcites ((Fig. 1 , black jack sphalerite

Figure l 16 inch-tall calcite scalenohedron fromthe Tri-State mining district , Univ. of Mo. -Kansas City Geo science Museum specimen.

(Fig. 2), ruby jack sphalerite , andsmithsonite . The presently inactive

district is now a superfund site.

Paragenesis of the OresMost museum specimens from Tri

state consist of ore and gangue minerals(Figs. 1 2). Yet typical ore sampleshave a quite different appearance (Fig.

E6 Mississippi Valley C hapter , FM I An nual Symposium

3 in which anhedral grains of oreminerals were deposited mainly withinopen spaces in a gangue of dolomite andbrecciated chert, locally referred to aschat .

Figure 2. Black jack sphalerite withscalenohedral calcite from the Tri -State minin gdistrict, Univ . of Mo Kansas City GeoscienceMuseum specimen.

Hagni and Grawe ' s (1964) thoroughexaminations of ore samples andpolished sections, showed that Tri-State

ores were deposited as multiplegenerations of ore and gangue minerals .No less than six distinct periods ofprimary ore minerals were recognized.

Age of Ore DepositionOnl y recently have solid estimates for

the age and duration of mineralizationbecome available . Pan et al. (1990) andLewchuk and Symons (1995) dated theores as late Paleozoic based on

paleomagnetic evidence. RecentlyBrannon et al . (1996) and Coveney et al.(2000) ·have obtained Th-Pb and U -Pbdates for calcite found in Tri-State ores.Available dates indicate thathydrothermal fluids were presentperiodically between - 251 and 66

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millions of years ago and possibly asrecently as 9 millions of years beforepresent. These dated exceed the ages ofthe Mississippian age host rocks, whichcontain the majority of the ore bodies, by

5 150 millions of years.

Figure 3. Zinc ore, Picher , Oklahoma . Blackjack s phalerite in brecciated and recementedchert ( c hat ). R. M. Coveney , Jr., specime n.

luid Inclusion StudiesFluid incl usions have provided key

evidence about the origins of the ores.n fact some of the very earliest

important studies of fluid inclusion wereperformed on samples from Tri-State.Long before studies of fluid inclusionsbecame routine, Buerger ( 1932) inferredthat Tri-State galena containedinclusions of brine when he observedsodium chloride crystals in the vicinityof tiny emptied cavities on the surfacesof cleaved galena crystals. Buerger'sefforts and work by Newhouse (1932)constituted the first hard evidence for theimportance of subsurface brines in thedevelopment of the deposits.Subseq uentl y Ne w house (1933) used

fluid inclusion homogenizationtemperatures to provide some of the fustaccurate es timates of the temperatures ofmineralization in any mining district.Fluid inclusions in sphalerite indicatethat the ores were deposited at 65 to 136degrees Celsius (Ragan, 1994 ).

n the past there was speculation thatthe ores formed as a result of igneou sintrusions, even though none are presentin the district , or from relative freshwater . But now , most workers attributethe origins of the deposits to an influx offormational fluids, although the primecause of fluid migration remains in somedoubt. Ore and gangue minerals containpredominantly briny fluids (> 15-20 %sodium and calcium chlorides ).However, some ore minerals alsocontain including petroleum andhydrocarbon gases (Blasch andCoveney , 1988; Coveney et al., 2000).Fluid inclusions with temperaturessimilar to those in the ore district arefound in minor and trace occurrences inPaleozoic beds surrounding the district(Coveney and Goebel, 1983; Ragan,1994a, b; Ragan et al., 1996).

Fluid inclusions in dated calcitecrystals record successively lowerhomogeni zation temperatures rangingfrom 122 degrees Celsius at 251 millionye ars to 62 degrees in the 9 millionyear-old crystals. Salinities decline froma high of 23% equivalent NaCl in theoldest calcite crystals to near zero in theyoungest. Petroleum inclusions arecommon in early calcite but absent orrare in younger crystals. These data areavailable to guide genetic modeling ofTri-State and nearby oil and gas fields.

Origins o the OresThe zinc-lead deposits of the Tri

State mining district are not directlyassociated with igneous intrusion s

Nevertheless some initial investigatorssugges ted that the ores might haveformed from fluids heated by igneousactivity at remote sites. Others oncespeculated ore deposition fromdescending fresh water. Emmons (1918;1929) and Hagni and Grawe (1963 ) have

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provided excellent summaries of themany bits of geologic evidence used todevelop theories of origin for the ores.

Now, we know from fluid inclusionresults and other evidence that the TriState district ores were invaded byhydrothermal brines and mobilehydrocarbons (Dozy, 1970) for aremarkably long period of time. Theflowage of fluids , which was probablysporadic, post-dates for up to 200million years following thePennsylvanian-Permian orogeny - thecurrently favored impetus forhydrothermal flow in the Midwest(Leach and Rowan, 1986). The notionthat the ores ere derived from theOuachita orogeny dates at least back toMiser (1943).

The present state of the Tri-StateDistrict

The Tri-State district is nowdesignated by the U S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency as a superfund sitebecause of open stapes, land subsidence,

and heavy metals in soils, sediments , andwaters (e.g ., Drake, 1999). The mostvisible remainder of the mining glorydays would be the chat piles (Fig. 4)

Figure 4. Tailings pile near Treece , Kansas, June2000. The tailings contain mainly crushed chert( chat'') gangue material. The chat piles alsocontain minor amounts o f ore minerals andcarbonate gangue .

which have recently emerged as beingeconomically valuable. Isn t it ironicthat this material, once considered aswaste rock has become the only productof Tri-State mining still on the market?

References Cited

Blasch, S R . and Coveney, R M ., Jr., 1988, Goethite-bearing brine inclusions, petroleuminclusions, and the geochemical conditions of ore deposition at the Jumbo mine,Kansas: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v 52, p. 1007-1017.

Brannon, J . C., Cole, S.C., Podosek, F. A. , Ragan, V. M., Coveney, R. M., Jr ., Wallace,M. W., and Bradley , A. J., 1996, Th-Pb and U-Pb dating of ore-stage calcite andPaleozoic fluid flow: Science, v. 271, p. 491-493.

Brockie, D C., Hare, E. H., and Dingess, P.R. , 1968, The geology and ·ore deposits of

the Tri-State district of Missouri , Oklahoma , and Kansas, n Ore Deposits of theUnited States 1933-1967 (Graton-Sales volume): New York , American Institute ofMining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers , p. 400-430.

Buerger, M. J , 1932, The negative crystal cavities of certain galena and their brinecontent: American Mineralogist , v 17, p . 228-233.

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Newhouse , W. H ., 1933, The temperature of formation of Mississippi Valley lead-zincdeposits : Economic Geology, v . 28, p 744-750 .

Pan , H. , Symons , D . T a., and Sangster, D . F., 1990 , Paleomagnetism ofthe MississippiValley-type ore and host rocks n the northern Arkansas Tri-State districts : CanadianJournal ofEarth Sciences, v . 27 , p. 923-931.

Ragan , V M ., 1994a, Mineralogy and fluid inclusion geochemistry ofTri-State-typemineralization in eastern Kansas : Economic Geology , v. 89, p . 1411-1418 .

Ragan , V. M ., 1994b , Evidence for extensive hydrothermal event in the genesis oftheMississippi Valley-type MVT) deposits of eastern Kansas and the Tri-State miningdistrict of Kansas, Missouri , and Oklahoma : Ph .D. dissertation, University ofMissouri , Kansas City, 154 p .

Ragan, V . M ., Coveney , R M ., Jr ., and Brannon, J C., 1996 , Migration paths for fluidsand the northern limits of he Tri-State district from fluid inclusions and radiogenic

isotopesn

Carbonate-hosted lead-zinc deposits : Society of Economic GeologistsSpecial Publication 4, p . 419-431 .

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Tri State Mining District: overview