The Park City and Tintic districts of Utah are great producers of lead.
The lead ore (galena) is usually rich in silver. It occurs mainly in
veins and irregular deposits in limestone of Paleozoic Age closely
associated with certain igneous rocks.
One of the most famous mining districts in the world is that around
Leadville, Col., where ores of four metals--gold, silver, lead, and
zinc--have been extensively mined. The salient points in the rather
complex geology are the following: Paleozoic strata, including much
limestone, rest upon a foundation of pre-Paleozoic granite. Sheets
of igneous rock are interbedded with the strata and many dikes of
igneous rocks cut through the whole combination. After the last igneous
activity all the rocks were somewhat folded and notably faulted in
many places. The ores were dissolved out of the igneous rock and
deposited in large masses mostly in the limestone and in fissure veins,
especially along and near the fault zones.
Zinc. Another of the few most useful metals is zinc. It never occurs
in metallic form in nature, but most of it by far is obtained from the
ore mineral sphalerite (sulphide of zinc) described in the chapter on
"Mineralogy." A red oxide of zinc ore, called zincite, assumes great
economic importance in New Jersey. In 1917 the United States produced
686,000 tons of metallic zinc and was easily the world's leader. Since
1917 the production has fallen notably. The four greatest producing
States are Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, and Colorado. Germany and
Belgium are the greatest foreign producers.
Most important of all in the United States is the district around
Joplin, Mo., where the ore is closely associated with lead ore. The
mode of occurrence and origin of these ores are above referred to in
the discussion of lead.
In Montana some of the great east-west fissure veins in granite are
rich in silver ores in the upper levels, and in zinc ores (mainly
sphalerite) at depths of from some hundreds of feet to nearly 2,000
feet, that is as far down as they have been mined. They, like the
great copper veins of the same general district, were carried by
hot solutions which rose from the lower still very hot granite and
deposited the ores in fissures of the same cooler rock higher up.
Two great ore bodies in the general vicinity of Franklin, N. J., are of
unique interest, because they are mostly the red oxide of zinc called
zincite. The ore deposits occur in white limestone along or close to
its contact with metamorphosed (altered) strata and granite of early
Paleozoic Age. It is not definitely known how the ore originated, but
it was probably derived in solution from the hot granite and deposited
in the limestone by replacement of the latter.
In Colorado the principal zinc mines are around Leadville, where lead
ore is nearly always directly associated with the zinc ore. This
district is above described in the discussion of lead.