Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1904-10-07
The Conner Mines of Vermont.


Mr.. Walter. Harvey Weed, of the
United States Geological Survey,
made brief reconnaissance, in Septem-
Der, 1908, of the copper mines of Yer
mont The salient features of the de-
post studied by him in this preliminary
visit are described in a paper which is
included in the Surveys recent bulletin
no. 225) entitled Contributions to Eco
nomic Geology, 1903"
Copper mining was once one of
the chief Industries of the State of
Vermont. Prior to the opening of the
Michigan deposit, Vermont's most i'm
portant mine, the Ely, was the largest
copper producer in the country. The
deposits belong to type that is well
known in many parts of the world and
that includes some of the most famous
producers. In character and copper
content the Vermont ores correspond to
the ores found at Ducktown, Tennessee,
and can probably be as cheaply mined
and treated as those of that locality.
They are also similar to the deposits found
in the province of Quebec, Canada,
which lie almost due north of the Yer
mont belt.
The Vermont deposits contain vast
amounts of low-grade copper ore, which
only await development through some
cheap method of treatment to become
phenomenal producers. The ores pre-
sent considerable variation in their con-
tent of SILICA, but are of fairly constant
mineralogic character and are very
uniform in their percentage of copper.
These deposits occur in the billy
region that forms the eastern part of
the Green Mountains. The belt contains
three districts, Corinth, Copperfield, and
South STAFFORD, which lie in a north
south line from to 10 miles west of the
Connecticut River.
The thickness of the ore bodies varies
at different localities. AT the Elizabeth
mine the ore was as much as 100 feet
wide in the open-cut workings, and on
the 225 foot level it is 35 feet between
the walls. The ore has a maximum
width of 10 feet at the Union and at
adjacent properties in Corinth Township
and of 90 feet at the Copperfield prop
erty. The depth to which these deposits
extend is not known. At the Ely mine
the inclined shaft is 3400 feet long and
its bottom is below sea level. The ore
body consists of several lenses, so that
one lens may pinch out; but in the
Union and Ely mines the ore continues
in overlapping lenses to the greatest
depth attained. The ore bodies are re
markably free from water. At a depth
of 3400 feet on the dip, or 1900 feet verti
cally, the Ely ore body is very dry, the
water of the mine being confined to {
few hundred feet of upper workings
The ore and incasing rock are very
solid in all the mines and practically NJ
timbering is used.
Mr.. Weed gives interesting details
about the history, equipment, land present
development of the mines in the three
districts of the belt. The Elizabeth mine
near the town of South Strafford wa
opened as early as 1893, and its magnetic
pyrte was used for the manufacture o
copperas. The great Ely mine was dis
covered in 1921 and has been success
fully worked most of the time since then
Bad management and litigation hav
several times caused the mine to be CLOSED
{ down or to change hands, but wheneve
mining operations have been continued
it has yielded large output of copper.