| Elizabeth Mine Superfund site |
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|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Town | Strafford |
| County | Orange County |
| State | Vermont |
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| Information | |
| CERCLIS ID | VTD988366621 |
| Contaminants | Mine tailings, metals, sulfides. |
| Progress | |
| Proposed | 12/01/2000 |
| Listed | 06/14/2001 |
| Superfund sites | |
The Elizabeth Mine was a copper mine located in Orange County, Vermont, some miles south of the town of Strafford.
The ore deposit was discovered in 1793, but mining did not start until 1809. Open pit mining and from 1886 underground mining was conducted. The mine produced up to 8,500,000 lbs. of copper (1954) and was closed in 1957.
Due to acid mine drainage the west branch of the Ompompanoosuc River was polluted. Since 2000 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources have been developing a plan to clean up the area.
The ore deposits at the Elizabeth Mine are hosted in the strongly deformed Devonian Guile Mountain Formation (a grey to dark grey mica schist). Ore deposits are localized in zones of high permeability associated with deformation that occurred during the Acadian Orogeny. The ore body is principally a massive sulfide deposit consisting primarily of pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite.
