Very interesting article. I've researched an uncle who was killed in a car crash outside Winnemucca, Nevada in 1940. He was working at a "quicksilver" mine somewhere in the area. I think I've traced the location, thanks to a U.S. Bureau of Mines publication, to the Bottle Creek District in the mountains about 65 miles northwest of town. I also learned from an oral history transcript from a miner's wife that the cinnabar was refined on site, trucked to the railroad and shipped in 76 pound flasks to California, where it went into munitions manufacture. This woman also reported that the mine had pretty much played out shortly after Pearl Harbor.
Good article Richard, I often drive by Sulpher Bank Mine in Clearlake Oaks, CA where they mined Cinnabar for mercury. Red soil, smells like rotten eggs, I always wondered about its history...looks like it too was one of the biggest sources of mercury in the world...also located just north of the biggest geothermal field in the world at The Geysers which I always thought would be cool to take a tour of if they allow that. Looks like geologists think the whole area is underlain by a magma body which makes sense. Here was wiki's article. Thanks again for another neat geology history lesson! The history of these mines boom and bust cycles are so fascinating to me as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulphur_Bank_Mine
I was in Davis in 1972-74, when I was still quite naive, and unaware of all that (well, I knew about the Geysers and the volcanics around Clear Lake). Thanks!
Interesting topic. I remember briefly looking into the New Almadén mercury deposit in Northern California when I was doing minerals exploration. We were using mercury as a indicator for possible gold mineralization (Carlin type), along with other trace elements. I seem to recall that there are a string of mercury anomalies which were being interpretative as possible island arc terranes caught up in the Franciscan. Nothing ever came of the work, which was very preliminary.
The old saying "mad as a hatter" I believe came from mercury poisoning in it's usage in preparing animal skins for hat making. (probably from dermal uptake). And the trope of the "crazy" miner/prospector may be due to breathing of the toxic vapors released when roasting the amalgam to liberate the gold/silver.
Didn’t know, or forgot you are from/in Butte. Dad born there, graduated double degree from School of Mines. Raised family in Anaconda. Enjoy your posts
I've lived in Butte since 2003, hanging around SW MT as a student and teacher at Indiana U Geologic Field Station in the Tobacco Roots many years since 1969. Thanks for the nice words.
Stan Todd's MS thesis on the bedrock geology of Tom Miner Basin in Park County did not mention mercury in the cinnabar up there. But have there been any Hg samplings in the Yellowstone area cinnabar?
If there is any cinnabar, it has mercury, because it is mercury sulfide. But I don't think there is any; no reports in the MBMG Mineral Resources of Montana, and if you are referring to Cinnabar Basin or Cinnabar Mountain near Tom Miner basin, they were named for the red streak of rocks such as that in Devil's Slide, but that was erroneous on the part of the early miners; there is no cinnabar there, it's just iron-oxide colored clay or shale. There is certainly mercury in the waters of Yellowstone, but as far as I can see quickly, at levels that are not significantly elevated compared to normal background. In any case the mercury is dissolved, perhaps related to the thermal activity, and not in the form of cinnabar as far as I can tell. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70042126
Do you have anything to add about the Almaden mine in California? That was a significant source of mercury for the California gold operations, and possibly in other western mining districts(?). I believe that’s the origin of the wine’s name.
Yes I do! I actually started this post about California's New Almaden and New Idria, but got lost in the complexities of the Franciscan :). So that'll save for another time!
Hi Dick; I can connect you with the local New Almaden historian/geologist here in San Jose. He is a good friend and has a passion for the history and study of mercury/cinnabar mineralization. We can talk more next week when I visit. Wonderful article you wrote!
Very interesting article. I've researched an uncle who was killed in a car crash outside Winnemucca, Nevada in 1940. He was working at a "quicksilver" mine somewhere in the area. I think I've traced the location, thanks to a U.S. Bureau of Mines publication, to the Bottle Creek District in the mountains about 65 miles northwest of town. I also learned from an oral history transcript from a miner's wife that the cinnabar was refined on site, trucked to the railroad and shipped in 76 pound flasks to California, where it went into munitions manufacture. This woman also reported that the mine had pretty much played out shortly after Pearl Harbor.
Good article Richard, I often drive by Sulpher Bank Mine in Clearlake Oaks, CA where they mined Cinnabar for mercury. Red soil, smells like rotten eggs, I always wondered about its history...looks like it too was one of the biggest sources of mercury in the world...also located just north of the biggest geothermal field in the world at The Geysers which I always thought would be cool to take a tour of if they allow that. Looks like geologists think the whole area is underlain by a magma body which makes sense. Here was wiki's article. Thanks again for another neat geology history lesson! The history of these mines boom and bust cycles are so fascinating to me as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulphur_Bank_Mine
I was in Davis in 1972-74, when I was still quite naive, and unaware of all that (well, I knew about the Geysers and the volcanics around Clear Lake). Thanks!
Quite a bit of mercury was used here around Ballarat in the mid 1800s gold rush...
Wonderful! The way you weave so much history into your columns.
Interesting topic. I remember briefly looking into the New Almadén mercury deposit in Northern California when I was doing minerals exploration. We were using mercury as a indicator for possible gold mineralization (Carlin type), along with other trace elements. I seem to recall that there are a string of mercury anomalies which were being interpretative as possible island arc terranes caught up in the Franciscan. Nothing ever came of the work, which was very preliminary.
The old saying "mad as a hatter" I believe came from mercury poisoning in it's usage in preparing animal skins for hat making. (probably from dermal uptake). And the trope of the "crazy" miner/prospector may be due to breathing of the toxic vapors released when roasting the amalgam to liberate the gold/silver.
That was a good morning read!
Didn’t know, or forgot you are from/in Butte. Dad born there, graduated double degree from School of Mines. Raised family in Anaconda. Enjoy your posts
I've lived in Butte since 2003, hanging around SW MT as a student and teacher at Indiana U Geologic Field Station in the Tobacco Roots many years since 1969. Thanks for the nice words.
Stan Todd's MS thesis on the bedrock geology of Tom Miner Basin in Park County did not mention mercury in the cinnabar up there. But have there been any Hg samplings in the Yellowstone area cinnabar?
If there is any cinnabar, it has mercury, because it is mercury sulfide. But I don't think there is any; no reports in the MBMG Mineral Resources of Montana, and if you are referring to Cinnabar Basin or Cinnabar Mountain near Tom Miner basin, they were named for the red streak of rocks such as that in Devil's Slide, but that was erroneous on the part of the early miners; there is no cinnabar there, it's just iron-oxide colored clay or shale. There is certainly mercury in the waters of Yellowstone, but as far as I can see quickly, at levels that are not significantly elevated compared to normal background. In any case the mercury is dissolved, perhaps related to the thermal activity, and not in the form of cinnabar as far as I can tell. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70042126
Do you have anything to add about the Almaden mine in California? That was a significant source of mercury for the California gold operations, and possibly in other western mining districts(?). I believe that’s the origin of the wine’s name.
Yes I do! I actually started this post about California's New Almaden and New Idria, but got lost in the complexities of the Franciscan :). So that'll save for another time!
Hi Dick; I can connect you with the local New Almaden historian/geologist here in San Jose. He is a good friend and has a passion for the history and study of mercury/cinnabar mineralization. We can talk more next week when I visit. Wonderful article you wrote!
Cool, thanks!