Eugene E. Farmer
Published: 2018-03-18
Total Pages: 36
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Excerpt from Revegetation of Acid Mining Wastes in Central Idaho The Blackbird Mining District has a long history. Gold was discovered in 1893 and copper at about the same time. From the late l89o's to the early 1940's owner ship of the property changed from time to time and mining was opened and closed several times. No one seemed able to Operate a profitable mining venture in the area. During World War II, the Federal Government conducted some exploration for a possible domestic source of cobalt in the area. After the war, private firms continued the exploratory effort and, in 1949, full-scale underground mining for copper and cobalt was started. With the onset of the Korean War, ore production and milling operations were expanded. The Blackbird Mine was active until 1960, but reached its peak production in 1958. It was reopened in 1963 with both a surface pit and an underground operation. All production Operations were stopped in late 1967 and, except for exploratory work, the mine has been inactive ever since. In general, the rocks of the Blackbird District are quartzites and metamorphosed Precambrian sediments. Occasional massive intrusions of chalcopyrite, cobaltite, pyrite, and pyrrhotite occur in mineralized lenses, the first two minerals are high grade ores, the last two are waste sulphide minerals. For more than 20 years the Mining District has been a massive contributor of sulphuric acid, copper and iron ions, mine tailings, and erosional products. These mining byproducts have killed all fishes and benthic organisms in Blackbird Creek, the major stream leaving the area. Blackbird Creek is tributary to Panther Creek, which, in turn, is tributary to the Salmon River. Copper ions and sulphuric acid have also eliminated the anadromous fishery in Panther Creek. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
