Minerals and Zinc Mining in Timberville, VA

This week, beside taking the chapter 1 quiz, we have talked about minerals and zinc mining. With minerals, we talked about their physical properties, chemistry, crystal forms, and how we define which substances can be called minerals. Remember, minerals are different from rocks, as they are what make rocks! With regard to zinc mining, we talked about how the mineral sphalerite was mined locally during the 1950's and 1960's in the area. The local mines took the shape of room and pillar mines with adits that led to the surface, through which air, water, and heavy machinery all travelled. The zinc ore in this area is referred to as a Mississippi Valley Type deposit (MVT), meaning that it is found in faulted carbonate rock that has been influenced by the presence of hydrocarbons (oil and gas). We don't have alot of hydrocarbon deposits in our area, but they do exist in many places in small amounts. These mines were not open for very long and the orebodies were not very large, but it was an important industry locally during the middle of the 20th century.