THE MINERAL INDUSTRY of WYOMING This Chapter Has Been Prepared Under a Memorandum of Understanding Between the U.S
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
WYOMING Lime Bent SHERIDANCS Bent S-ng SG Sheridan Gyp Bent MINERAL SYMBOLS SG Gem CROOK Cody Bent (Major producing areas) Gem CS BIG HORN Sundance PARK Gyp CS CS CAMPBELL Bent Bentonite Bent CS Bent Bent Bent Bentonite plant JOHNSON Bent Cem Cement plant TETON SG CS SG Bent WASHAKIE WESTON Clay Common clay Bent HOT SPRINGS SG CS Crushed stone CS Bent Jackson D-G Dimension granite S DS Dimension stone plant S-ng 1 2 Fel Feldspar Bent Gem Gemstones NIOBRARA SG FREMONT NATRONA Casper CONVERSE Gyp Gypsum SG SG DS Leo CS SUBLETTE CS Fel He Helium Jd CS Jd Jade Leo Leonardite CS Lime Lime plant S-ng SG NaC Sodium carbonate PLATTE SG LINCOLN GOSHEN D-G Per Perlite plant S-ng CS He S-ng ALBANY SWEETWATER S Sulfur S-ng CARBON SG S-ng Sulfur (natural gas) S-ng CS NaC CS LARAMIE S-o Sulfur (oil) Clay UINTA Per SG Laramie SG Cem Cheyenne SG Construction sand and SG Gyp CS CS S-o DS gravel Concentration of mineral operations LEGEND County boundary Capital City Crushed stone/sand 1 and gravel districts 0 100 Kilometers Source: Wyoming State Geological Survey/U.S. Geological Survey (2003) THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF WYOMING This chapter has been prepared under a Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Wyoming State Geological Survey for collecting information on all nonfuel minerals. In 2003, the estimated value1 of nonfuel mineral production The Wyoming State Geological Survey (WSGS) provided the for Wyoming was $1.01 billion, based upon preliminary U.S. following narrative information.3 Production data in the text Geological Survey (USGS) data. This value was unchanged that follows are those reported by the WSGS and are based on from the estimated values for 20022 and 2001, respectively. For the agency’s own surveys and estimates. They may differ from the second consecutive year, the State ranked 13th among the 50 some production figures reported to the USGS. States in total nonfuel mineral production value and accounted for more than 2.5% of the U.S. total. Exploration and Development Activities Soda ash was Wyoming’s leading nonfuel mineral, by value, followed by bentonite, Grade-A helium, and portland cement. Industrial Minerals Together, the four accounted for nearly 93% of the State’s total raw nonfuel mineral production value. In 2003, increases in Diamond and Gemstones.—As of 2003, at least 22 in situ the values of Grade-A helium and gypsum were balanced by diamond deposits had been identified in Wyoming, which hosts decreases (in descending order of change) in the values of soda the two largest kimberlite districts in the United States (the ash, bentonite, portland cement, construction sand and gravel, Iron Mountain district and the Wyoming and State Line district, and crushed stone, which resulted in no significant change in which is on the Colorado-Wyoming border) and the largest the total nonfuel raw mineral production value for the year. In lamproite field in North America (Leucite Hills). 2002, increases in the values of Grade-A helium and crushed Limited exploration for diamond was reported in the Iron stone were balanced out mostly by decreases in the values of Mountain, State Line, Middle Sybille Creek, and Happy bentonite, construction sand and gravel, portland cement, and Jack-Eagle Rock districts. A few kimberlites were reportedly soda ash that resulted in no overall change for the year (table 1). discovered in the Happy Jack-Eagle Rock district west of Based upon USGS estimates of the quantities of minerals Cheyenne, although these discoveries remained unverified by produced in the 50 States during 2003, Wyoming again ranked the WSGS. Exploration was initiated in this district to follow up 1st in soda ash and bentonite production and 2d in Grade-A on the large number of kimberlitic indicator mineral anomalies helium production; the State’s ranking rose to 9th from 11th in identified by the WSGS. the production of gypsum. Soda ash (sodium carbonate), which Results of mapping and sampling in the Iron Mountain district is produced mainly from trona ore, is an inorganic chemical by the WSGS expanded the known extent of kimberlite (Hausel that is used extensively in the manufacture of glass, paper, and others, 2003). Geochemical data for these kimberlites soap and detergents, and textiles, and, in the form of sodium showed similar diamond potential to diamondiferous kimberlites bicarbonate, in food products. The United States is the world’s in the State Line district to the south. Based on mapping, there second largest producer of soda ash. Wyoming was one of only is a high probability for the occurrence of additional kimberlites three soda-ash-producing States and is home to the world’s to the north and west and high probability for the occurrence largest known natural deposit of trona. California and Colorado of buried kimberlites within the district. Most of the sites produce significantly smaller quantities of natural soda ash. remained unexplored and none had been drilled. North of the Indian Guide anomalies, hundreds of kimberlitic indicator mineral anomalies were detected by the WSGS that 1The terms “nonfuel mineral production” and related “values” encompass extend northward into the Elmers Rock greenstone belt. Owing variations in meaning, depending upon the mineral products. Production may to budget restrictions, only a very small sample of pyrope be measured by mine shipments, mineral commodity sales, or marketable garnets was tested and a large percentage had G10 geochemistry. production (including consumption by producers) as is applicable to the Some extraordinary anomalies were also detected in this individual mineral commodity. All 2003 USGS mineral production data published in this chapter are region, including the Grant Creek anomaly east of the Radichal preliminary estimates as of July 2004 and are expected to change. For some kimberlite in Middle Sybille Creek drainage north of the Iron mineral commodities, such as construction sand and gravel, crushed stone, and Mountain district. This anomaly consisted of a group of five portland cement, estimates are updated periodically. To obtain the most current stream-sediment samples collected within a one-mile radius of information, please contact the appropriate USGS mineral commodity specialist. Specialist contact information may be retrieved over the Internet at URL http:// one another that yielded a few hundred indicator mineral grains. minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/contacts/comdir.html; alternatively, specialists’ Adjacent to the anomaly, an enigmatic outcrop of carbonate names and telephone numbers may be obtained by calling USGS information at within the Precambrian complex remained unexplored. North of (703) 648-4000 or by calling the USGS Earth Science Information Center the Grant Creek anomaly, similar concentrations of kimberlitic at 1-888-ASK-USGS (275-8747). All Mineral Industry Surveys—mineral commodity, State, and country—also may be retrieved over the Internet at URL indicator minerals (along with some sapphires and rubies) were http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals. 2Values, percentage calculations, and rankings for 2002 may differ from the 3Ray E. Harris, Staff Geologist—Industrial Minerals and Uranium, and Minerals Yearbook, Area Reports: Domestic 2002, Volume II, owing to the W. Daniel Hausel, Senior Economic Geologist—Metals and Precious Stones, revision of preliminary 2002 to final 2002 data. Data for 2003 are preliminary both of the Wyoming State Geological Survey, coauthored the text of the State and are expected to change; related rankings also may change. mineral industry information provided by that agency. WYOMING—2003 53.1 identified in several stream sediment concentrates. Another indicator mineral anomaly a few miles south in the Iron Creek significant indicator mineral anomaly was reportedly found east area, but the source of the Boden diamond had not been of Laramie Peak and several miles north of Grant Creek (Lee identified. Diamond was also accidentally discovered in a core Peterson, oral commun., 2002). sample of Proterozoic metaconglomerate during a search for To the south of Iron Mountain, approximately 40 Witwatersrand-type gold mineralization. To the east, a 6.2-carat diamondiferous kimberlites occur along the Colorado-Wyoming diamond was recovered in Fish Creek in the State Line district border. All kimberlites tested in the State Line district have south of Laramie (Howard Coopersmith, oral commun., 2003). yielded diamond, and approximately 50% have been of gem Other diamond had been found in drainages in the district. quality. One kimberlite on the border produced gemstones that Other reports of diamond included a gem-quality diamond that weighed up to 28.3 carats, and included one diamond fragment weighed approximately 10 carats, which was found in the Gros from an estimated 90-carat diamond (Howard Coopersmith, Ventre Mountains and a nearly 1.3-centimeter diameter diamond oral commun., 2003). Another kimberlite in the district that was found in the Wind River Mountains (J.D. Love, oral yielded a bulk sample with diamond ore grade as high as 135 commun., 1981). carats per 100 metric tons. Even with these favorable results, During the past few years, some colored gemstone some kimberlites remained untested, and a group of airborne occurrences were identified. These included chromian diopside, geophysical anomalies, which were interpreted as buried chromian enstatite, common opal, iolite, kyanite, olivine diamond pipes, had yet to be drilled. (peridot), pyrope, ruby, and sapphire. Some of the iolite found Hundreds of other anomalies have been identified in the in Wyoming is comparable to the best iolite found in the world. Wyoming craton. These included a kimberlitic indicator mineral In 1995, the WSGS discovered a source of gem-quality anomaly that was detected in a gravel pit near Baggs, WY, in iolite, kyanite, ruby, and sapphire west of Wheatland in eastern the Sierra Madre Mountains.