pea ridge closure

8/3/2019 Pea Ridge Closure

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/pea-ridge-closure 1/8

And, lastly, please visit FM’s website www.

friendsofmineralogy.org. Chuck Miller has beengreat in designing and implementing this work.Websites are always in development, so let usknow what you like and what you would like to seeon this site.

Stay well and best wishes to all of you,

Susan ErikssonPresident

For Immediate Release: October 11, 2001Contact: Regina Aumente, 303-978-9926, [email protected]

PROCEEDS OF 2001 DENVER GEM AND MIN-ERAL SHOW DONATED TO RED CROSS LIB-ERTY FUND

Members of the mineral, fossil, and lapidarycommunity in Denver, Colorado were significantlyimpacted by the tragedy of September 11, 2001.The annual Denver Gem and Mineral Show wasscheduled to begin on September 14 th. Vendors,exhibitors, and visitors from all over the world werein Denver or en route when, suddenly, the worldwas no longer quite the same. Many exhibitors andvisitors could not get to Denver due to airport shut-downs. As the nation’s attention was riveted on theevents in New York and Washington, a gem andmineral show no longer seemed quite relevant.Cancellation of the show was considered and re-

jected. Too many people had put in hundreds ofhours of work, traveled thousands of miles, andspent large sums of money to make the show hap-pen.

In view of the tragedy, the organization didnot feel it was right to just go on as if nothing had

Dear Friends,

The events of September 11, 2001dominate our thoughts and will continue tohave a profound effect on our lives. Peopleinterested in specimen mineralogy liveacross the globe. Many or all of us havefriends and colleagues in far-flung parts ofthis global network. Our friends and col-leagues closer to home have been affectedin many ways. I, for one, will look at ourcommon interest in mineralogy as a unifyingfactor in this time of anxiety and uncertainty.

The Tucson ‘experience’ is loomingon the horizon. Although many people areanxious about traveling and other aspects ofour lives, there WILL be minerals in Tucson.The program for the annual symposium islisted in this newsletter. This program re-flects the global nature of today’s societywith scientists from North America whotravel the world and partner with those onother continents and mineralogists fromother parts of the globe who will be travelingto Tucson to share their work with us. Welook forward to a very successful annualsymposium in 2002 and meeting with our in-ternational colleagues.

We have one more newsletter thisyear that will have a slate of officers andboard members for 2002. If you are inter-ested in serving FM in some capacity,please let me know ([email protected] or540-951-8030). Several of our presentboard members and officers have changed

jobs and have other personal commitmentsfor next year. We need a larger involvementof members to make an active volunteer or-ganization.

President’s Message

V OLUME 31, I SSUE 3

J UL Y - SEPTEMBER , 2001Friends of Mineralogy

A Quarterly Newsletter



V OLUME 31, I SSUE 3P AG E 2

AGI GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS MONTHLY RE-VIEWSEPTEMBER 2001

Changed Priorities on Capitol Hill

In early September, Congress wasbogged down in partisan bickering on all fronts.The appropriations process was even further be-hind than usual, and efforts to produce compre-hensive energy legislation had slowed in theSenate as gasoline prices fell. Congressional

leaders had abandoned hopes of an early insession until Christmas. The biggest political im-perative was to avoid dipping into the Social Se-curity surplus. It all seems like a long time ago.

Having met the immediate needs of thecrisis -- granting war powers, providing $40 bil-lion in emergency funds, and giving recognitionto victims and heroic rescue workers -- Congressat month's end was beginning the process of re-focusing on prior concerns but in an entirely new

context. As Congress takes up old business, many ofthe old divisions are gradually replacing the extraordi-nary unity that followed September 11th. But the ran-cor is largely gone, holding out hope that reasonablecompromises can be found in order to keep thingsmoving ahead. Typical was the call by Sen. JohnMcCain (R-AZ), reported in Greenwire, to set aside old"habits of partisanship and parochialism" and unify be-hind the president.

Although national defense, economic stimulus,and airport security measures are clearly at centerstage, the president has announced that education re-mains a top priority for his administration and that hewants an education bill on his desk in October. TheWhite House is wrangling with congressional appro-priators over final spending numbers for fiscal year(FY) 2002, which began October 1st. The governmentis currently running under a two-week continuing reso-lution at FY 2001 levels. Energy policy is making acomeback based on national security concerns ratherthan consumer demands. More on each of these top-ics follows.

Appropriations End Game

After delays related to the tragic events of Sep-tember 11th and an ever-changing list of priorities,Congress appears poised to steam forward with theappropriation bills. None of the 13 bills were ready forthe president's signature on October 1st, the start ofFY 2002. Despite missing the deadline and running ona continuing resolution, Congress is determined tokeep all the bills separate, instead of the omnibuspackage that has become the norm in recent years.The House and Senate have appointed conferees forseven bills that have passed both chambers. Theyalso have agreed on spending levels for the bills andhave tentative agreement with the White House Officeof Management and Budget (OMB) as well. But themajor sticking point right now between Congress andOMB is whether or not OMB will put the final numbersin writing -- House Democrats are particularly con-cerned about being labeled budget-busters in the elec-tions next year. As soon as the final numbers are re-leased, both the House and the Senate are ready tomove several of the bills swiftly, including three keygeoscience-related bills -- Interior, Energy & Water,and Commerce. More information on appropriations isavailable at http://www.agiweb.org/gap/legis107/ appropsfy2002.html.

happened. The members of the Denver ShowCommittee, with the consent of their parent or-ganization, the Greater Denver Area Gem andMineral Council, decided to donate all proceedsfrom admission receipts to a charity to help thevictims of September 11 th. Martin Zinn, organ-izer of the Colorado Fossil Expo, also agreed todonate his share of the admission receipts, andDanny Duke, of the International Gem and Jew-elry Show, provided an additional $1,000 for thefund. As a result of this agreement, $25,637.15from admissions and individual contributions wasdonated to the Liberty Fund of the Red Cross onOctober 11, 2001.

The Greater Denver Area Gem and Min-eral Council is a non-profit organization of tenmineral, fossil, gem, lapidary, and bead hobbyclubs in the Denver area. The organizationshave a combined total of 1400 members. Themembers of the Council sponsor and producethe annual Denver Gem and Mineral Show. Pro-ceeds of the show are normally used for dona-tions to education and research in the earth sci-ences and lapidary arts.



F RIENDS OF M INERALOGY P AG E 3

Education Bill Containing Santorum Amend-ment Still Pending

After President Bush signaled that over-

hauling federal educational programs remaineda top priority of the administration, a House-Senate conference has returned to work ham-mering out a final compromise bill. Meetingshave taken place behind closed doors with atight lock on information. Science educationgroups are largely being forced to watch fromthe sidelines as deals are made over the sizeand scope of new federal math and sciencepartnership programs. Efforts are still ongoing toremove a Senate-passed resolution that singlesout biological evolution as a controversial theory.

In late August, the leaders of 80 scientific andeducational organizations sent a joint letter toCongress opposing the Sense of the Senateresolution introduced by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA). Since that time, a number of additional or-ganizations have signed on to the letter, includ-ing several AGI member societies and the fed-eration of biomedical societies that have pow-ered growth of the National Institutes of Health.The letter and current list of 95 signatories canbe viewed at http://www.agiweb.org/gap/ legis107/evolutionletter.html. In the past month,

groups opposed to the teaching of evolutionhave stepped up efforts to use the Santorumresolution to lobby school boards to teach Intelli-gent Design theory and other forms of creation-ism. More at http://www.agiweb.org/gap/legis.html#evolution.

House Science Committee Looks at NSF Re-search Priorities

The House Science Subcommittee onResearch held a hearing on September 6th re-

garding the National Science Foundation's(NSF) management and planning for large re-search projects, including NSF's Major Re-search Equipment (MRE) account and researchfacilities. NSF Director Rita Colwell, NationalScience Board Vice Chair Anita Jones, and NSFInspector General Christine Boesz testified onhow the agency prioritizes and manages theselarge projects. Jones explained that under thecurrent system the science board reviews and

prioritizes proposed major projects. NSF then worksto stay within funding parameters provided by the Of-fice of Management and Budget. Committee mem-bers questioned the witnesses on what other steps

the agency takes to help insure that priority projectsare maintained in the budget and what can beendone to improve this process. The first earth scienceMRE project, EarthScope, was included in the FY2001 NSF request after receiving National ScienceBoard approval. Congress did not fund it, however,and there were no new starts in the FY 2002 budgetrequest. Hopes are high that EarthScope will be in-cluded in NSF's FY 2003 request. More informationon the hearing is available on the subcommittee'swebsite at http://www.house.gov/science/research/ reshearings.htm.

Chapter News

Midwest ChapterMark Sherwood

2001 Seminar:The planned date for the 2001 Friends of Min-

eralogy Seminar will be the weekend of November 2-3-4, 2001. The planned theme is “Mineralogy of Ar-kansas Intrusives” with particular emphasis on the

mineralogy of Magnet Cove. Like the 2000 seminar amix of lectures and field work is planned. Tentativefield trip sites include several sites in Magnet Cove,Wilson Hot Springs (Potash Sulfur Springs), Highway51 (Midstates) Quarry, Diamond Jo Quarry andnepheline syenite quarries in Little Rock. At this time,we expect to send out formal announcements andregistration forms in August. Activities are plannedbeginning Friday morning, November 2 and endingabout noon, Sunday November 4.

Midwest Chapter

Dwaine Edington, President

The next meeting of the Midwest Chapter willbe held on November 3rd, 2001 in Cleveland, Ohio.The meeting will be held in connection with The Mi-cromineral Symposium, Cleveland Museum of Natu-ral History. Contact Bill Cook, 216-381-9003.



V OLUME 31, I SSUE 3P AG E 4

Pacific-Northwest Chapter

The PNWFM Symposium, a "Rainbow ofMinerals", was held at the Red Lion Hotel in

Kelso, Washington September 28 - 30. The chap-ter invited the northwest region of the FluorescentMineral Society to join us for this year's programabout colorful minerals.

The symposium opened with a program byDon Newsome featuring a hands on presentationof "Fluorescent Minerals - Simple to Sublime."Jesse Fisher presented a program about "Recentwork at the Rogerly Mine, Weardale, England"and another on the "Gem and Rare Element Peg-matites of Southern California." Sharleen Harvey

showed a slide program on her recent visits to thePurple Passion Mine and Hogan Claim near Wick-enburg Arizona documenting the "Fuzzy Wulfen-ites and Five-color Fluorescent Specimens."

The symposium floor housed four promi-nent mineral dealers, sixteen colorful exhibits anda "Micromounters' Corner". An adjacent roomheld eight spectacular fluorescent mineral exhib-its. Fifteen "satellite" dealers occupied the northwing of hotel rooms. The dealers, exhibits and mi-cromount program were open to the general pub-

lic at no charge and were very well received.Eighty-seven members and guests participated inthe program. A PNWFM benefit auction was heldand generated $1043.00 for the chapter treasury.

The chapter held its annual businessmeeting and awards presentation. New officerswere elected and the "Noble Witt Award" was pre-sented this year to Harvey Gordon for his manyyears of service to the mineralogical communityand especially to the PNWFM Chapter. GOODTIME WAS HAD BY ALL. Sharleen Harvey,

PNWFM President (Retired)

Southern California Chapter

The Southern California Chapter will hold aMineral Collectors Workshop, Saturday, Novem-ber 3, 2001 at the Maturango Museum in Ridge-crest, CA. A field trip on the 4th will focus on thePegmatities and Skarn Deposits of the Owens

Valley. The MSSC Pasadena Show will be heldon December 8-9,2001 at the Pasadena Center.

The SoCal Chapter may be accessed via

the web at www.mineralsocal.org.Mary Aruta, Secretary.

Southeast Chapter

The Southeast Chapter held its annual fallsymposium and meeting at the McClung Museumin Knoxville, TN on October 13-14, 2001. Titled:Mississippi Valley Type Deposits II– Non-MetalllicMinerals, the program also featured collecting atthe Ballard Mine, Sweetwater, Tennessee.

Pennsylvania ChapterRoland Bounds

The PA Chapter for FM will be having its an-nual Mineral Symposium, benefit auction andfield trip on the first weekend of November.November 2 through 4, 2001. The theme of thisyear's symposium is pseudomorphs and the fol-lowing people will be speakers: Phil Betancourt,David Ellis, John Medici, and Terry Huizing. Thesymposium will include a few dealers for betweentalk sales as well as a buffet lunch. It will be held

at the Brandywine Terrace in Wilmington, DE.For more information contact George Rambo at1-302-798-4163. Annual elections will be heldlater in the year.

Can Minerals Be Far Behind?

The issue of regulation of collecting onpublic lands reared its head again in the form of abill on fossil collecting introduced in Congress onOctober 2 by Rep. James P. McGovern. H.B.2974 removes vertebrate fossil collecting fromthe realm of the amateur collector, requiring per-mits and mandating that the materials collectedremain in the public domain. Violations could betreated as a felony and the penalties are stiff. Acopy of the bill may be found on the FM website.




The 23rd Annual Tucson Mineralogical SymposiumSaturday, February 9, 2001

Sponsored by Friends of Mineralogy-Tucson Gem and Mineral Society-Mineralogical Society of America

Mineralogical Symposium: Minerals of AfricaThe Minerals of the Erongo Mountains,Erongo District, Central NamibiaChristopher L. JohnstonP.O. Box 354Omaruru, Namibia

The Occurrence of Dioptase inAfrican Mineral DepositsRobert B. Cook

Department of Geology and GeographyAuburn University, AL 36849Benjamin E. NicolsonP.O. Box 344Tsumeb, Namibia

The Reopening of the Tsumeb Mine, Namibiaby Tsumeb Specimen Mining Ltd.Robert B. CookDepartment of Geology and GeographyAuburn University, AL 36849Benjamin E. Nicolson and Ian R. BruceTsumeb Specimen Mining Ltd.P.O. Box 344Tsumeb, Namibia

Yellow Orthoclase (Sanidine) fromSouth Betroka, MadagascarWilliam B. Simmons and Alexander U. FalsterDepartment of Geology and GeophysicsUniversity of New OrleansNew Orleans, Louisiana

Londonite, a New Mineral: the Cs-dominantAnalog of Rhodizite from MadagascarWilliam B. Simmons, Alexander U. Falster,and Karen L. WebberDepartment of Geology and GeophysicsUniversity of New OrleansNew Orleans, Louisiana 70148

Federico PezzottaMuseo di Storia Naturale di MilanoCorso Venezia 55I-20121 Milano, Italy

The Messina Copper Mines, South AfricaBruce CairncrossDepartment of GeologyRand Afrikaans UniversityP.O. Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006Johannesburg, South [email protected]

Mineral Highlights from Southern Africa:

A Tour of the Desmond Sacco CollectionBruce CairncrossDepartment of GeologyRand Afrikaans UniversityP.O. Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006Johannesburg, South [email protected]

Tourmaline from the Antandrokomby,Anjanabonoina and Fianarantsoa Pegmatites,MadagascarKaren L. Webber , William B. Simmons ,and Alexander U. FalsterDepartment of Geology and GeophysicsUniversity of New Orleans

Graphite with growth spirals fromArises River Marbles, Wlotzkas Baken,western NamibiaJohn RakovanDepartment of GeologyMiami UniversityOxford, Ohio

John A. JaszczakDepartment of Physics and the A. E. Seaman Min-eral MuseumMichigan Technological UniversityHoughton, MI



Volume 31, No

PEA RIDGE MINE CLOSESLarry NuelleAugust 28, 2001

On August 27, 2001, the Pea RidgeIron Ore Company announced the closure ofthe Pea Ridge mine in Washington County,Missouri with production ceasing on that date.The shafts are to be capped and the mine tobe flooded later this year. The closure affectssome 117 employees.

The drilling of a magnetic anomaly de-lineated by an airborne magnetic survey co-funded by the U. S. Geological Survey, St. JoeLead Co., and the Missouri Geological Surveyresulted in the discovery of Pea Ridge. In1954, St. Joe drilled the anomaly with thehopes of finding a lead deposit associated witha Precambrian knob that was speculated to bethe cause of the anomaly. Rather than inter-secting lead, the drill hole hit high-grade ironore in Precambrian rhyolitic rocks. In 1957, a

joint venture between Bethlehem Steel Corp.and St. Joe resulted in the formation of theMeramec Mining Co. in order to construct amine, mill, and roasting furnace to exploit thedeposit. The mine opened in 1964 as the PeaRidge mine, a name kept for its entire life.

Pea Ridge operated at nearly full to fullcapacity through 1977 producing from around0.8 million long tons to around 1.3 million longtons of iron ore pellets per year. Only magnet-ite was recovered for steel-making purposes.The ore was mined, crushed, and ran througha magnetic separator to recover the magnetitefrom the other minerals. The powdered mag-netite was then combined with a binder to formiron ore pellets. The pellets were then roastedin a furnace to convert the magnetite to hema-tite as required by blast furnace technology.

The mine was closed as uneconomic inDecember 1977. Shortly after this, the St. JoeLead Company was purchased by Fluor Cor-poration, which through an agreement withHomestake, formed the Doe Run Company.In the process, Pea Ridge was sold. The minereopened as the Pea Ridge Iron Ore Companyin the summer of 1979 with a much reduced

staff and production schedule. In recent years,competition with larger surface mines and thepresence of unacceptable phosphate levels in theiron ore for modern furnace technology resulted inthe loss of pellet contracts for Pea Ridge. Re-cently, production of iron ore was not used forsteel making, but for specialty products such as aheavy media separation agent for clean coal tech-nology and for specialty magnets and electronics.The mine closes after having produced approxi-mately 50.7 million tons of iron ore.

The iron ore body at Pea Ridge consists ofhigh-grade magnetite with minor amounts ofspecular hematite. Gangue minerals includefluorapatite, actinolite, and quartz. A plethora ofaccessory minerals is present and includes calcite,fluorite, barite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, monazite,xenotime, altaite, and others such as the rare andelusive isolated grains of electrum. For a compre-hensive review of the geology and mineralogy, seemy article in the Missouri mineral locality Issue ofRocks and Minerals (v 73, n 2, Mar-Apr 1998).

Pea Ridge was the last operating under-ground iron ore mine in North America. Its closingends an era in Missouri iron ore production. Theclosing of Pea Ridge is particularly sad knowingthat there is still million tons of magnetite availablethat will probably never be mined. I, and I am surethe entire membership of the Mississippi ValleyChapter of Friends of Mineralogy, wish nothing butthe best of luck to the employees affected by themine closure.

Che ck ou t ou r w ebs i t e !

www.friendsofmineralogy.orgwww.friendsofmineralogy.org



Masthead

Published Quarterly by The Friends of Mineralogy, Inc.Subscription included with Annual Membership fee of $10 for Nationalmembers not affiliated with a chapter.Editor, Distributor: Chuck Miller, 3320 Dawn Circle, Roanoke, VA 24018

Friends of Mineralogy 2001 OfficersPresident: Susan Eriksson, 1013 Draper Rd., Blacksburg, VA 24060;[email protected] President: Bill Dameron, 1609 NW 79th Circle, Vancouver, WA98665, [email protected]: Chuck Miller, 3320 Dawn Circle, Roanoke, VA [email protected]: Jack Nieburger, 25231 Pico Vista, Moreno, CA [email protected] Board of DirectorsUntil February 2002Phillip C. Goodell, 6024 Pinehurst, El Paso, TX 79912;[email protected]

Chuck Miller,3320 Dawn Circle, Roanoke, VA 24018James A. McGlasson, 9461 E. Hickory Tree Dr., Tucson, AZ 85749Roland Bounds, 315 Stamford Dr., Newark, DE 19711-2723Nelson R. Shaffer, 530 Cabot Court, Bloomington, IN 47408Ray Grant, 3262 W. Monterey St., Chandler, AZ [email protected]

Until 2003Susan C. Erikkson, 1013 Draper Rd., Blacksburg, VA [email protected] Howard, 3815 W. Roosevelt Rd., Little Rock, AR [email protected] Nieburger, 25231 Pico Vista, Moreno, CA 92557 [email protected] Balog, 3912 Sandpiper Dr., Roanoke VA [email protected] Wenrich, 63 S. Devinney Ct., Golden, Co. 80401, [email protected] Nuelle, P.O. Box 1770, Rolla, MO 65402 [email protected]

Until February 2004Bill Dameron, 1609 NW 79th Circle, Vancouver, WA 98665; [email protected] (Skip) Simmons, Dept. of Geology, U. of New Orleans, New Orleans,LA 70148 [email protected] W. Leuth, 801 Leroy Pl., New Mexico Tech., Socorro, NM [email protected] Aumente, 8075 W. Fremont Dr., Litt leton, CO [email protected] Reynolds, 2024 Orange Tree Lane, Redlands, CA [email protected] Sicree, 122 Steidle Bldg., University Park, PA [email protected]

Regional Chapter PresidentsColorado : Bill Chirnside, 2157 South Cole Court, Lakewood, CO 80228-4610(303) 989-8748, [email protected]

Midwest : Dwaine H. Edington, 217 W. Brown St., Knightstown, IN 46148(765) 345-5144Pacific Northwest James Etzwiler, 3935 Interlake Ave., N. Seattle, WA98103-8131 (206) 633-1512 [email protected] : Roland Bounds, 315 Stamford Dr., Newark, DE 19711-2723(302) 731-8407, [email protected] California : Bob Reynolds, 2024 Orange Tree Lane, Redlands, CA92374-2850 [email protected]

Mississippi Valley Chapter : Mark Sherwood, PO Box 436, Oak Grove, MO.64075-0436, [email protected] Chapter : David Babulski, 2677 Colony Circle, Snellville, GA [email protected] Society : Peter Megaw , Tucson Gem & Mineral Society, PO Box 42543Tucson, AZ 85733 (520) 322-5773, [email protected]

Affiliations: The Mineralogical Record Magazine, The Mineralogical Society of America, and the American Geological Institute

Friends of Minera logyChuck Mil ler, Edi tor 3320 Daw n Circ l eRoanoke, VA 24018

pea ridge closure

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