# Elizabeth Mine

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The **Elizabeth Mine** was a [copper mine](/source/Copper_mine) located on the town line between the Town of [Strafford](/source/Strafford,_Vermont) and the Town of [Thetford](/source/Thetford,_Vermont), in [Orange County, Vermont](/source/Orange_County,_Vermont).

The ore deposit was discovered in 1793, but mining did not start until 1809. [Open pit mining](/source/Open_pit_mining) and from 1886 underground mining was conducted. The mine produced up to 8,500,000 pounds (3,900,000 kg) of copper (1954) and was closed in 1957.

Due to [acid mine drainage](/source/Acid_mine_drainage) the west branch of the [Ompompanoosuc River](/source/Ompompanoosuc_River) was polluted. Since 2000 the [Environmental Protection Agency](/source/United_States_Environmental_Protection_Agency) (EPA) and the [Vermont Agency of Natural Resources](/source/Vermont_Agency_of_Natural_Resources) have been developing a plan to clean up the area.[1][2]

## Geology

The ore deposits at the Elizabeth Mine represent classic examples of [sedimentary exhalative](/source/Sedimentary_exhalative_deposits) type deposition where hydrothermal fluids enter the marine environment and precipitate out minerals in a strataform ore body.[3][4][5] The ores are hosted in the strongly deformed Lower [Devonian](/source/Devonian) Gile Mountain Formation (a grey to dark grey mica [schist](/source/Schist)). The ore body at the Elizabeth Mine is a massive sulfide deposit consisting primarily of [pyrrhotite](/source/Pyrrhotite) and [chalcopyrite](/source/Chalcopyrite).

## See also

- [Copper mining in the United States](/source/Copper_mining_in_the_United_States)
- [List of Superfund sites in Vermont](/source/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_Vermont)

## References

1. Hammarstrom, J. M.; Seal, R. R. II; Ouimetter, A. P.; Foster, S. A. (2001). "Sources of metals and acidity at the Elizabeth and Ely mines". *Society of Economic Geologists Guidebook Series*. **35**: 213–248.

1. Seal, R. R. II; Hammarstrom, J. M.; Slack, J. F.; Hathaway, E. M.; Lovely, W. P.; Kierstead, M. A. (2001). "Introduction: environmental geochemistry and mining history of massive sulfide deposits in the Vermont copper belt". *Society of Economic Geologists Guidebook Series*. **35**: 115–117.

1. Deb, M. (2004). *Sediment Hosted Lead-Zinc Sulphide Deposits*. CRC Press. p. 367.

1. Slack, J. F.; Offield, T. W.; Woodruff, L. G.; Shanks, W. C. III (2001). "Geology and geochemistry of Besshi-type massive sulfide deposits of the Vermont copper belt". *Society of Economic Geologists Guidebook Series*. **35**: 193–211.

1. Offield, T. W. & Slack, J. F. (1993). "Structure and origin of the Ely copper deposit, east- central Vermont". *U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin*. **2039**: 59–68.

## External links

- [South Strafford's Elizabeth Copper Mine: The Tyson Years, 1880–1902](http://www.vermonthistory.org/journal/70/vt703_404.pdf)
- [Vermont Mining](http://www.uvm.edu/~envprog/formslinks/Vermont%20Mining/Copper.html)
- [The Geology of the Elizabeth Mine, Peter Howard, 1969](http://www.anr.state.vt.us/dec/geo/pdfdocs/elizabethminebull.pdf)
- [Geologic Map of the Elizabeth Mine Area (Stratford, VT)](http://www.anr.state.vt.us/dec/geo/elizimages/elizpa1small.jpg)

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