Take a geological tour across the Snowy Range Scenic Byway. The Snowy Range scenic byway was the second scenic byway established in the United States because of its extraordinary sites and beauty. Our trek will take us from Saragota, south along Highway 230 and visit the site of the American copper mine, the Many Values mica mine, and then to the University of Wyoming Geology Museum. On return, we will view all of the glory of the Snowy Range. We will see a 25 square mile deflation basin produced by the tremendous winds of Wyoming, and then drive through geologic and historical time as we witness rocks that are recently formed and those that are older than 2.5 billion years in age. We will stop to see rocks that look as they were squeezed out of a toothpaste container, see faults, and look at rocks containing the fossil remains of some of the oldest creatures on earth during one of many periods of global warming (and all before Al Gore). We will see evidence of global freezing and the remains of past glacial periods.
The Snowy Range includes a fascinating mining history that began in the early 1800s. Gold, platinum, palladium, copper, rare earth metals, uranium, fluorite, chromite, titanium and diamonds were found here and there is evidence of large widespread uranium and palladium deposits as well as many overlooked diamond pipes.
Gold panning and mine history of the Centennial Ridge district. Take a gold pan and pan the Middle Fork of the Little Laramie River. Your guides will teach you how to pan. We may not find any gold, but we have found many garnets and diamond indicator minerals that suggest one lucky person may pan out a diamond or two. Centennial Ridge is an old mining district with several old gold and platinum prospects.
The Grand Encampment mining district in the Sierra Madre was at the turn of the 19th century, one of the more important copper districts in the world. A large mill and smelter complex built in encampment was designed to reduce the metal from ore. Much of it shipped along the longest tramway of its kind in the late 1800s. The tramway ran from the famous Ferris-Haggarty Mine, over the continental divide and down to the boom town of Encampment over a distance of 14.25 miles. But the copper boom fell to ruins after the mill and smelter complex burned to the ground in 1906 and again in 1907. This with 30% decline in copper prices closed the district leaving large resources in the ground. We will visit the old site of the mill and smelter, the Encampment museum and tour the Kurtz-Chatterton copper mine area where there are copper specimens galore.
Searching the Lake Owen a & Mullen Creek layered complexes for gold, platinum and palladium |
Prospecting and gold panning hints
While visiting the Medicine Bow Mountains, you may want to pan for gold or prospect for mineralized veins. In general, prospectors tend to speak of two forms of gold deposits - placers and lodes. Placers are stream sediments and gravels that carry some valuable minerals or metals that for the most part have been eroded from the bedrock and concentrated by fluvial processes. Lodes are in-placer mineralized quartz veins, faults, or shear zones.
Within the boundaries of the National Forest, much of the land is open to casual prospecting and rock hunting with the exception of private land, lands withdrawn from mineral activities, and areas that are already staked by other prospectors or mining companies. If you have questions regarding access or areas open to casual prospecting, contact the local and State offices of the U.S. Forest Service or the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Panning for gold and platinum is relatively easy particularly if you have the proper equipment. Although all you need is a gold pan, you will find some of the following equipment useful and will make life a lot easier. A good shovel, a magnifying lens, rubber boots, a gold pan (plastic gold pans are preferable), and a grizzly pan (or fly screen) is recommended. Since gold is very heavy, it will concentrate at the bottom of the stream gravels. Thus the deeper you dig, the better your chances are of finding gold.
The better areas in the creeks occur along stream meanders, behind boulders, or any place where the water velocity slows noticeably. Dig some material and place it on your screen. Wash the material through the screen into your pan and discard the pebbles on the screen. Next, take your gold pan and tilt it about 30 degrees into the stream keeping the lower lip under the water while swirling in a circular motion. You will begin to see many of the lighter minerals float out. Continue panning until the concentrate is black. This is the black sand prospectors often refer to. Don't worry about losing the gold. If you are retaining the black sand, then there is little chance of losing the gold. Gold has a specific gravity of about 19.3 (19.3 times heavier than water), the black sand has an average specific gravity of only 4.0, and many of the lighter-colored minerals you already washed out have and average specific gravity of only about 2.8.
Now examine the black sand. Look for flakes and nuggets of warm yellow metal. This metal is malleable, meaning that you can take a pin and easily dent the metal. Some people confuse mica with gold, however, the mica will tend to spin (roll) in the water when swirling the gold pan (gold will not), and small pieces of the mica will flake off under the pressure of a pin point. Gold flakes and nuggest can be picked out with your fingers. The very small gold colors the size of a pin point can be recovered by first removing the water from the pan, and by wetting your index finger and touching these colors, they can simply be removed.
I have panned gold from several places along Douglas Creek near the Bobbie Thompson campground, and most summer days prospectors with small portable dredges can be found along the creek recovering flakes and nuggets. These people generally have mining claims in this area, so if you want to pan on their claims you must obtain their permission.
In 1991 and 1992, the Geological Survey of Wyoming sampled several creeks along the northern flank of the Medicine Bow Mountains. To our surprise, nearly every creek that we sampled, we found gold. Access to some of these areas will require permission from private land owners.
Lode deposits are relatively easy to study once you understand what you are looking for. Visit one of the historical mine sites. Most of the shafts and tunnels were dug on veins. These veins tend to be linear in that many of them follow faults or deep fractures in the earth. Often the vein will be composed of milky white quartz with a lot of rusty material known as limonite, or will be a fault or shear zone where the rocks have been granulated (ground up) producing a gouge zone. Geologists tend to refer to such rocks as being 'chewed up'.
Follow the lode or its float (loose quartz sitting on the surface) as far as you can, being careful not to get lost since the forest can be quite dense and easy to get turned around in. As you walk along the lode, look for distinct rusty looking spots, particularly lenses of rusty, vuggy to spongy looking rock. These are good places to look for gold. Use your magnifying lens to look for any gold. A rule of thumb is that if you can see gold under a 10-power magnifying lens in a rock, the sample will probably assay at least 1.0 ounce per ton. If you don't see any gold, you can check the sample by either sending it to an assayer, or crushing the rock with a hammer in a gunny sack and panning the pulverized material.
References Cited
Beeler, H.C., 1905, Mining in the Grand Encampment mining district, Carbon and Albany Counties, Wyoming: Office of the State Geologist, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 31 p.
Blackwelder, Elliot, 1926, Precambrian geology of the Medicine Bow Mountains: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 37, p. 615-658.
Breckenridge, R.M., and Hinckley, B.S., 1978, Thermal springs of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bulletin 60, 104 p.
Currey, D.R., 1965, The Keystone gold-copper prospect area, Albany County, Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Preliminary Report 3, 12 p.
Dersch, J.S., 1990, Snowy Range withdrawal: U.S. Bureau of Land Management Mineral Report WYW-115104, 21 p.
Duncan, Mel, 1990, The Medicine Bow mining camps: Jelm Mountain Publications, Laramie, Wyoming, 244 p.
Hausel, W.D., 1986, Mineral deposits of the Encampment mining district, Sierra Madre, Wyoming-Colorado: Geological Survey of Wyoming Report of Investigations 37, 31 p.
Hausel, W.D., 1989, The geology of Wyoming's precious metal and lode deposits: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bulletin 68, 248 p.
Hausel, W.D., 1992, Economic geology of the Cooper Hill mining district, Medicine Bow Mountains, Carbon County, Wyoming: Wyoming Geological Association 43rd Annual Field Conference Guidebook, p. 303-314.
Hausel, W.D., 1993, Mining history and geology of some of Wyoming's metal and gemstone districts: Wyoming Geological Association 44th Annual Field Conference Guidebook, in preparation.
Hausel, W.D., and Jones, R.W., 1984, Self-guided tour of the geology of a portion of southeastern Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Public Information Circular 21, 44 p.
Hausel, W.D., and Jones, Suzanne, 1982, Geological reconnaissance report of metallic deposits for in situ and heap leaching extraction research possibilities: Geological Survey of Wyoming Open File Report 82-4, 51 p.
Hausel, W.D., Marlatt, G.G., Nielsen, E.L., and Gregory, R.W., 1992, Preliminary study of metals and precious stones along the Union Pacific right-of-way, southern Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Open File Report 92-5, 79 p.
Hills, F.A., and Houston, R.S., 1979, Early Proterozoic tectonics of the central Rocky Mountains, North America: University of Wyoming Contributions to Geology, v. 17, no. 2, p. 89-109.
Houston, R.S., 1961, The Big Creek pegmatite area, Carbon County, Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Preliminary Report 1, 11 p.
Houston, R.S., and Graff, P.J., 1991, Northern Medicine Bow Mountains geologic summary: Wyoming Geological Association 42nd Annual Field Conference Guidebook, p. 259-262.
Houston, R.S., Graff, P.J., Karlstrom, K.E., and Root, F.K., 1977, Preliminary report on radioactive conglomerate of middle Precambrian age in the Sierra Madre and Medicine Bow Mountains of southeastern Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 77-584, 31 p.
Houston, R.S., and Karlstrom, K.E., 1979, Uranium-bearing quartz-pebble conglomerates: exploration model and United States resource potential: U.S. Department of Energy Open File Report GJBX-1 (80), 510 p.
Houston, R.S., and Karlstrom, K.E., 1992, Geologic map of Precambrian metasedimentary rocks of the Medicine Bow Mountains, Albany and Carbon Counties, Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigation Series Map I-2280, scale 1:50,000.
Houston, R.S., Karlstrom, K.E., and Graff, P.J., 1979, Progress report on the study of radioactive quartz-pebble conglomerate of the Medicine Bow Mountains and Sierra Madre, southeastern Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 79-1131, 41 p.
Houston, R.S., Karlstrom, K.E., Lanthier, R.L., Miller, W.R., and Bigsby, P.R., 1983, Mineral resource potential of the Snowy Range wilderness, Albany and Carbon Counties, Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-1596-A, 12 p. (scale 1:24,000).
Houston, R.S., and Murphy, J.R., 1962, Titaniferous black sandstone deposits of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bulletin 49, 120 p.
Houston, R.S., and others, 1968, A regional study of rocks of Precambrian age in that part of the Medicine Bow Mountains lying in southeastern Wyoming-with a chapter on the relationship between Precambrian and Laramide structure: Geological Survey of Wyoming Memoir 1, 167 p.
Karlstrom and others, 1981, Volume 1 - A summary of the geology and uranium potential of Precambrian conglomerates in southeastern Wyoming: U.S. Department of Energy NURE Open File Report GJBX-139, 541 p.
Karlstrom, K.E., Flurkey, A.J., and Houston, R.S., 1983, Stratigraphy and depositional setting of the Proterozoic Snowy Pass Supergroup, southeastern Wyoming: Record of an early Proterozoic Atlantic-type cratonic margin: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 94, p. 1257-1274.
Karlstrom, K.E., and Houston, R.S., 1979, Stratigraphy and uranium potential of Early Proterozoic metasedimentary rocks in the Medicine Bow Mountains, Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Report of Investigations 13, 45 p.
Knight, S.H., 1968, Precambrian stromatolites, bioherms, and reefs in the lower half of the Nash Formation, Medicine Bow Mountains, Wyoming: University of Wyoming Contributions to Geology, v. 7, p. 73-116.
Knight, S.H., 1990, Illustrated geologic history of the Medicine Bow Mountains and adjacent areas, Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Memoir 4, 49 p.
Knight, S.H., and Keefer, D.K., 1966, Preliminary report on the Precambrian stromatolites in the Nash Fork Formation, Medicine Bow Mountains, Wyoming: University of Wyoming Contributions to Geology, v. 5, p. 1-11.
Larson, T.A., 1990, History of Wyoming: University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 663 p.
Loucks, R.R., 1976, Platinum-gold-copper mineralization, central Medicine Bow Mountains, Wyoming: M.S. thesis, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, 290 p.
Loucks, R.R., 1991, Platinum-gold and vanadiferous magnetite mineralization in the Early Proterozoic Lake Owen layered mafic intrusion, Medicine Bow Mountains: Wyoming Geological Association 42nd Annual Field Conference Guidebook, p. 37-38.
McCallum, M.E., 1968, The Centennial Ridge gold-platinum district, Albany County, Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Preliminary Report 7, 12 p.
McCallum M.E., and Kluender, S.E., 1983, Mineral resources potential of the Savage Run wilderness, Carbon and Albany Counties, Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-1638-A, 10 p., scale 1:24,000.
McCallum, M.E., and Orback, C.J., 1968, The New Rambler copper-gold-platinum district, Albany and Carbon Counties, Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Preliminary Report 8, 12 p.
Michalek, D.D., 1952, Precambrian geology of Jelm Mountain, Albany County, Wyoming: M.A. thesis, University of Wyoming, Laramie, 51 p.
Mullison, J.H., 1909, Report for Forest Atlas, Medicine Bow National Forest: Geological Survey of Wyoming mineral files,
Osterwald, F.W., Osterwald, D.B., Long, J.S., and Wilson, W.H., 1966, Mineral resources of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bulletin 50, 287 p.
Schoen, Robert, 1952, Geology of the Cooper Hill district, Carbon County, Wyoming: M. A. thesis, University of Wyoming, Laramie, 41 p.
Silver Lake Resources, Inc., 1986, Annual report for 1985: Geological Survey of Wyoming mineral files, 27 p.
Snyder, G.L., Hausel, W.D., Klein, T.L., Houston, R.S., and Graff, P.J., 1989, Precambrian rocks and mineralization, Wyoming Province, guide to field trip T-332: 28th International Geological Congress, American Geophysical Union, Washington D.C., 48 p.
Spencer, A.C., 1904, Copper deposits of the Encampment district, Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 25, 107 p.
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Common geology, mining, and prospecting terms.
Adit: A horizontal mine tunnel (see also shaft).
Anticline: A fold that is convex upward with the oldest rocks in the core.
Archean: see Precambrian.
Bioherm: A dome-like mass of calcareous rock built up by the remains of sedentary organisms such as corals, algle, and stromatoporoids).
Boxwork: Vuggy limonite residue left behind from the weathering of iron-rich minerals such as pyrite or siderite.
Dike: A narrow, linear, mass of igneous rock that often follows a prominent fracture in the earth's crust.
Fault: A fracture in which rocks have been displaced. Some types of faults include reverse, normal, and thrust. A thrust fault is a relatively low angle fracture in which older rocks have been displaced on top of younger rocks. A reverse fault is a high angle thrust fault. A normal fault has the opposite sense of movement of a reverse fault.
Gangue minerals: Gangue (pronounced "gang") minerals are the minerals associated with a vein or ore deposit that have no value.
Gossan: An iron-rich (rusty appearing) zone formed of limonite and related minerals found over many sulfide-rich (pyrite, chalcopyrite) mineral deposits. Produced by oxidation and weathering.
Laramide orogeny: This was a major time of crustal deformation in the Rocky Mountains that culminated with the development of many of our present mountain ranges. This episode of deformation extended from the late Cretaceous to the end of the Paleocene (about 100 million years ago to 55 million years ago).
Lode: In general, refers to a mineralized zone, quartz vein, or a mineral deposit occurring in a consolidated rock outcrop.
Metamorphism: The mineralogical and structural adjustment of solid rock to chemical and physical conditions imposed by elevated temperature and pressure at depth.
Mylonite: A compact chertlike rock produced by extreme granulation and shearing of rocks.
Ore: A naturally occurring material from which minerals of sufficient value or quantity might be (or was in the past) mined at a profit.
Ore shoot: A large and unusually rich aggregation of ore in a vein or shear zone (lode). Sometimes referred to as a paystreak, although the latter more specifically describes rich mineralized gravel in a placer deposit.
Paraconglomerate: A conglomerate that is not a product of normal aqueous flow but deposited by such modes as mass transport (slides, turbidity flows, and glacier ice).
Phanerozoic: Rocks younger than the Precambrian. Those that formed from about 570 million years ago to the present.
Placer: In general, refers to mineral deposits mechanically concentrated in streams and in stream-deposited terraces.
Pluton: A large mass of igneous rock.
Precambrian: An important division of geological time that is a general term for rocks older than the Phanerozoic. Typically divided into the Archean Eon (3.8 billion to about 2.5 billion years ago) and the Proterozoic Eon (2.5 billion to 570 million years ago).
Proterozoic: see Precambrian.
Shaft: A vertical mine tunnel (see also adit).
Shear zone: A tabular zone of rock that has been crushed and brecciated with many parallel fractures.
Strategic mineral or metal: Metals and minerals that our country does not mine in sufficient amounts to supply the needs of our domestic industries or the military in case of a national crisis, such as a war, or an embargo. Nearly every metal found in nature is listed as strategic for the United States.
Sulfide: In reference to one of several metallic-sulfides such as pyrite.
Supergene enrichment: Refers to the solution of a metal by surface waters from the upper part of an ore deposit and its redeposition below (generally at the water table).
Vein: A zone or belt of mineralized rock lying within clearly defined boundaries that separates it from the enclosing host rock.
Selected rock and mineral definitions
Amphibolite: A dark gray to black metamorphic rock formed almost entirely of the prismatic amphibole minerals. Amphibolites typically represent recrystallized basalts, gabbros, or greywackes.
Arsenopyrite (arsenic-iron-sulfide): a silver-gray metallic sulfide that alters to a yellow green stain known as scorodite. The mineral itself is of little value, although it often incorporates enough silver or gold in its crystal structure to make it an ore mineral.
Basalt: A fine-grained, dark-gray to black, mafic volcanic rock typically erupted onto the surface of the earth.
Beryl: Hexagonal (six-sided), green crystals typically found in pegmatites such as the Many Values pegmatite (Locality 57). Rarely beryl occurs as a light blue, transparent to translucent gem known as aquamarine. Beryl (beryllium oxide) is a common ore for the metal beryllium, which is a strategic metal used in the electronic and aerospace industries.
Chlorite: A greenish mica.
Chalcocite: A copper-sulfide ore mineral that is relatively heavy and generally earthy black.
Chalcopyrite: a bronze, metallic, copper ore mineral (copper-iron-sulfide).
Chrysocolla: A beautiful, glassy, azure blue copper silicate.
Columbite: A black mineral oxide that is the principal ore of the rare earth element niobium, and also a source of tantalum. These high-tech metals have many important uses in alloys used in the electronics industry and aerospace industry.
Dolomite: A mineral, or a rock composed primarily of the mineral dolomite (calcium-magnesium-carbonate).
Euxenite: A rare earth oxide containing tantalum, niobium, and yttrium (see also columbite). Yttrium, like the other rare earth elements is a high-tech metal used in the electronics industry, in lasers, and in superconductors.
Gabbro: A dark gray to black, medium- to coarse-grained, mafic igneous rock that is the subvolcanic and plutonic equivalent of basalt.
Garnet: There are a variety of garnets found in nature. In the Medicine Bow Mountains, garnets are often found as translucent, reddish-brown, equidimensional crystals known as dodecahedrons. They are common in schists, and are numerous in the stream beds as tiny red crystal grains. Since garnets are relatively heavy, prospectors typically find many garnets in their black sand concentrates when panning for gold.
Gold: A valuable precious metal. Native gold occurs as a warm, yellow, heavy, malleable metal.
Gneiss: A coarse-grained foliated metamorphic rock with alternating bands of light-colored and dark-colored minerals.
Granite: A coarse-grained, light-colored igneous rock composed primarily of pink and light-colored feldspar, gray quartz, and dark mica.
Greenstone: Refers to an igneous rock that is greenish in color.
Greywacke: A gray, micaceous sandstone.
Hematite (iron oxide): a soft, silver metallic to earthy red, non-magnetic mineral.
Huttonite (thorium-silicate): A colorless to pale-cream radioactive mineral that fluoresces white to pink under ultraviolet light.
Igneous: "Fire rock". A rock produced by the cooling of hot magma, either on the surface (volcanic) or at depth in the earth (plutonic).
Ilmenite (iron-titanium-oxide): An important ore mineral for titanium (a strategic metal used in high performance civilian and military aircraft).
Limonite (hydrated iron oxide): A reddish-brown to yellowish-brown mineral formed as an weathering product of sulfide minerals. Typically found in gossans.
Mafic: Refers to dark-colored igneous rocks typically containing relatively high amounts of magnesium in silicate minerals.
Magnetite (iron oxide): Magnetite forms a black, equi-dimensional, highly magnetic octahedron. Generally found in large amounts in placers and forms much of the black sands referred to by prospectors.
Malachite (copper carbonate): Typically forms bright green stains, patina, and crusts on copper ores. It is the alteration product of many primary copper minerals such as chalcopyrite. May contain considerable amounts of silver in its crystal structure.
Mica (complex silicate): A platy (psuedo-hexagonal) mineral that forms in "books". In pegmatites, crystals can obtain large dimensions of several inches across. Can occur as white mica (muscovite), or very small white mica (sericite), black to brown mica (biotite), and dull green mica (chlorite).
Monazite: A wedge-shaped, yellowish to reddish-brown, generally weakly radioactive, phosphate of the rare earth metals cerium and lanthanum. Appreciable amounts of thorium and yttrium may substitute for the rare earth metals. This is a heavy mineral found in some placers with the black sands. The rare earth metals are also considered to be strategic metals and have many important commercial and military applications are are extensively used in superconductors.
Phyllite: A fine-grained foliated metamorphic rock of sedimentary origin.
Platinum: A malleable, heavy, silver, metallic, precious metal. This critical strategic metal has important uses in jewelry, electronics, metallurgy, and has widespread usage in catalytic converters.
Pluton: An igneous intrusion that formed below the earth's surface. These rocks are typically coarse-grained (they cool and crystalize over relatively long periods of time) in contrast to volcanic rocks that erupt on the earth's surface and cool rapidly.
Pyrite (iron-sulfide): Commonly known as fool's gold. A brass-colored, metallic sulfide that is often mistaken for gold. Pyrite, however, can incorporate large amounts of gold in its crystal structure. As much as 60 ounces of gold per ton can be hidden in the crystal structure. Generally, the fine-grained to massive pyrite carries some gold and the medium to coarse grained pyrite is barren of gold.
Quartz (silica): A common rock-forming mineral that forms a large portion of most veins.
Quartz diorite: A medium-grained, gray igneous rock common in the Keystone distinct (Locality 43).
Quartzite: A hard, granular, metamorphic rock composed mostly of rounded quartz grains. The metamorphosed equivalent of sandstone.
Rutile (titanium oxide): A titanium ore mineral.
Schist: A distinctly foliated metamorphic rock. Generally, mica forms large portions of schist.
Schorl: Black tourmaline.
Siderite (iron carbonate): A brownish, rhombohedral gangue mineral found in many veins.
Slate: A hard, black to dark gray, foliated metamorphic rock with the appearance of a chalkboard. The metamorphosed equivalent of shale.
Sperrylite (platinum arsenide): A tin-white, bright, metallic ore mineral of platinum occuring in masses, less often in cubes, and rarely in octahedrons.
Sphene (calcium-titanium-oxide): An important titanium-bearing mineral with a relatively high specific gravity (relatively heavy) often found in black sands in placer deposits and in titaniferous black sandstone deposits (Locality 3).
Tantalite (an oxide of iron, manganese, niobium, and tantalum): A heavy mineral found in black sands in paystreaks of placer deposits and found in some titaniferous black sandstone deposits (Locality 3). Tantalum is a strategic metal with several important uses, including the manufacture of surgical instruments. Niobium is a strategic metal used in superconductors, and manganese is a critical strategic metal used in production of virtually all steels.
Tourmaline: A prismatic silicate mineral with distinct triangular to hexagonal cross sections. In pegmatites such as the Many Values prospect (Locality 57), tourmaline occurs as long, narrow, jet black schorl in a white pegmatite matrix.
Ultramafic: An igneous rock with very high amounts of magnesium. These rocks are interpreted to have originated from the earth's mantle where minerals are also rich in transition elements such as chromium and nickel.
Zircon (zirconium silicate): A relatively heavy, reddish brown, translucent, prismatic crystal often found in black sand concentrates and in titaniferous black sandstone deposits (Locality 4). A primary ore mineral of the strategic metal zirconium. Zirconium is used chiefly in the facings of foundry molds, in refractory bricks for furnaces, and in the structural material in nuclear reactors. Zircon also contains appreciable amounts of hafnium, which is used primarily in the control rods of the U.S. Navy's nuclear reactors.
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