Diopside
specimen number:
2102405
location:
Edwards Mine, St. Lawrence Co., New York, USA
description: The Edwards mine, located at Edwards within the Balmat-Edwards zinc district of St. Lawrence County, New York, was a major underground mining operation focused on high-grade zinc extraction. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within the highly metamorphosed, Proterozoic-aged Upper Marble formation of the Grenville Supergroup, which underwent intense deformation and folding during the Grenville Orogeny. Severe structural forces and hydrothermal activity mobilized and concentrated massive sulfide mineral bodies, resulting in thick, tabular ore lenses composed predominantly of sphalerite and pyrite, with minor galena, hosted within siliceous dolomite and silicated marble matrices. Discovery of the ore occurred in 1903, and commercial underground production commenced in 1915 under the Northern Ore Company. The St. Joseph Lead Company acquired the asset in 1926, managing decades of continuous, deep-level shaft extraction alongside nearby processing mills. Production at the Edwards mine operated continuously for nearly seven decades until economic factors and ore depletion led to its permanent closure in 1983, marking the end of one of the longest-lived industrial zinc producers in the northeastern United States.
Crystals of diopside throughout matrix. In good condition.
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