USEFUL METAL* 



141 



County, Virginia, segregations of native copper, together with 

 the oxides, cuprite and tenorite, and the carbonates, malachite 

 and tizurite, occur along sheared zones in the altered rocks of 

 Algonkian age. 



In Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut, deposits of 

 native copper are found along the contact of diabase and the 

 intruded sandstones. The mines in these states have never been 

 large producers (Fig. 82). 



The four copper mines worked from time to time in Vermont 

 are the Ely mine in Vershire; the Corinth mine in Corinth; 

 the Elizabeth mine and the Strafford mine in Strafford, Vermont. 

 These are all in Orange County, and are now idle owing in part 



FIG. 82. Ely mine, Copperfield, Vermont, showing the large slag beds 

 in the foreground. (By courtesy of the Vermonter.) 



to the depletion of the available ore bodies and in part to the 

 distance from railroad. The chief ore in each was chalcopyrite 

 associated with pyrrhotite and pyrite. The ore is in saddle- 

 shaped bodies in the Vershire schists and in chimneys at the 

 contact of the granite with the Vershire schists. The schists 

 and the associated limestones are of Ordovician age. Tour- 

 malines and garnets are abundant (Fig. 83). 



The copper ores of the Appalachian belt are somewhat aurifer- 

 ous. The early attempts to work the ores for both the gold 

 and the copper content resulted in failure. The Vermont ores 

 averaged about $2 per ton in gold. The Newfoundland ores are 

 higher in their gold content. Much of that ore assays from $2 



