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Illinois - Kentucky Fluorite District

Past Producer in Pope county in Illinois, United States with commodities Fluorine-Fluorite, Zinc, Lead, Cadmium, Silver
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Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Host and associated rocks
  8. Nearby scientific data
  9. Geologic structures
  10. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  11. Mining district
  12. Production statistics
  13. Bibliographic references
  14. General comments
  15. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10307221
Record type District
Current site name Illinois - Kentucky Fluorite District

Comments on the site names

  • The major districts or mine cluster names in Illinois are: Lusk Creek Group, Empire District, Stewart Group, Interstate Group, Rosiclare District, Goose Creek Group, and Cave in Rock District. The major district names in Kentucky are: Dyers Hil Group, Commodore Group, Levias-Crittenden Springs Group, Moore Hill Group, Claylick Group, and Tabb Group.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -88.35004, 37.41673 (WGS84)
Location accuracy 10000(meters)

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Hardin(county)

Illinois(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Rosiclare(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Paducah(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Paducah(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Lower Ohio-Bay(hydrologic unit)

Lower Ohio(hydrologic accounting unit)

Lower Ohio(hydrologic subregion)

Ohio(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Illinois Pope
United States Illinois Hardin
United States Kentucky Crittenden
United States Kentucky Livingston

Comments on the location information

  • Location is approximate center of large mineral district. The known mineralized area covers about 1400 square km in southern Illinois and northern Kentucky and contains many smaller mineral districts.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Fluorine-Fluorite Critical Primary
Zinc Critical Primary
Lead Primary
Cadmium Secondary
Silver Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Deposits contain large amounts of fluorspar, with sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, and barite. Small amounts of cadmium and silver are recovered from lead and zinc during refining. Fluorite in the district is generally pure CaF2, with few impurities, although often coated with bitumen. Fluorite found in the vicinity of Hicks Dome cryptovolcanic structure contains uranium-, thorium-, niobium-, and rare-earth-element-bearing minerals (Pinckney, 1976).

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Fluorspar Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Galena Ore
Calcite Gangue
Quartz Gangue
Chalcopyrite Unknown
Barite Unknown
Pyrite Unknown
Marcasite Unknown
Strontianite Unknown
Smithsonite Unknown

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone
    Rock unit name St. Louis Formation
    Rock description St. Louis Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Mississippian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone
    Rock unit name Ste. Genevieve Formation
    Rock description Ste. Genevieve Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Mississippian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone
    Rock unit name Renault Formation
    Rock description Renault Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Mississippian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Sandstone
    Rock unit name Bethel Formation
    Rock description Bethel Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Mississippian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Sandstone
    Rock unit name Point Creek Formation
    Rock description Point Creek Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Mississippian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Sandstone
    Rock unit name Cypress Formation
    Rock description Cypress Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Mississippian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Mixed Clastic/Carbonate Rock
    Rock unit name Golconda Formation
    Rock description Golconda Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Mississippian
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Mafic Intrusive Rock

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description Normal faults associated with horst and grabens; radial faults around Hicks Dome

Comments on the geologic information

  • The Illinois - Kentucky Fluorite district is found in the remnants of a depositional basin that contains more than 4000 m of sediment deposited during the Paleozoic. During Mississippian time, sedimentation in the basin changed from continental shelf deep marine to more shallow, near-shore marine. Regional uplift and additional uplift associated with emplacement of the Hicks Dome structure separated an eastern basin in Kentucky from a western basin in Illinois. Rocks within each basin are broken up by numerous normal faults into a regional framework of horsts and grabens. Additional structures include radial faults around Hicks Dome, northward-trending faults in blocks between grabens, and two major fault zones, Shawneetown and Tabb (Pinckney, 1976).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Both
Significant Yes

Mining district

District name Illinois - Kentucky Fluorite District

Production statistics

  • Year 1955
    Period 1953-1955
    Material ore
    Ore mined 57557mt
    Importance Item Commodity Group Amount recovered Grade Recovery percentage
    Major lead Lead Lead 47mt 0wt-pct
    Major zinc Zinc Zinc 452mt 1wt-pct
  • Year 1956
    Period 1953-1956
    Material ore
    Ore mined 1090815mt
    Importance Item Commodity Group Amount recovered Grade Recovery percentage
    Major lead Lead Lead 7127mt 1wt-pct
    Major zinc Zinc Zinc 25098mt 2wt-pct
    Minor silver Silver Silver 2097992g 2g/mt
  • Year 1959
    Period 1956-1959
    Material ore
    Ore mined 57671mt
    Importance Item Commodity Group Amount recovered Grade Recovery percentage
    Major lead Lead Lead 675mt 1wt-pct
    Major zinc Zinc Zinc 1520mt 3wt-pct
    Minor silver Silver Silver 33872g 1g/mt
  • Year 1959
    Period 1957-1959
    Material ore
    Ore mined 596614mt
    Importance Item Commodity Group Amount recovered Grade Recovery percentage
    Major lead Lead Lead 2158mt 0wt-pct
    Major zinc Zinc Zinc 12222mt 2wt-pct
  • Year 1976
    Period 1939-1976
    Material lead
    Ore mined 54000mt
  • Year 1976
    Period 1939-1976
    Material zinc
    Ore mined 122000mt
  • Year 1976
    Period 1880-1976
    Material fluorspar
    Ore mined 8600000mt

Comments on the production information

  • Production data from Pinckney (1976) represent district compilations for both Kentucky and Illinois. Production numbers from the 1950s suggests that crude ore from Illinois may contains slightly more zinc and slightly less lead than ore from Kentucky, but this may reflect mining differences. The relative character of the ores is better reflected in the Zn:CaF2 ratio, which for Kentucky are nearly 3 times as high as that for Illinois. The last mine in the district closed in 1995, ending 175 years of mining and production.

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • The mineral district is coextensive with a large regional area of outcrop of Mississippian limestones. By projecting favorable beds within the stratigraphic and structural framework of known mineralization, the mineral potential of the region doubles. In addition, the mineral potential of the many diatremes is unknown (Pinckney, 1976).

Comments on the workings information

  • Most of the mines in the district were underground. Some surface workings are found in the Cave-in-Rock and Empire districts in Illinois. Vein deposits were mined by stoping and bedded deposits were mined by modified room-and-pillar. Some older, shallow underground mines were later stripped, removing overburden and old mine pillar (Goldstein, 1997).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Pinckney, D.M., 1976, Mineral resources of the Illinois-Kentucky mining district: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 970, 15 p.

  • Geology

    Goldstein, A., 1997, The Illinois-Kentucky fluorite district: The Mineralogical Record, v. 28, p. 3 - 50.

  • Deposit

    GROGAN, R.M. AND BRADBURY J.C., 1968, FLUORITE-ZINC-LEAD DEPOSITS OF THE ILLINOIS-KENTUCKY MINING DISTRICT; IN RIDGE, J.D., ED., ORE DEPOSITS OF THE UNITED STATES 1933-1967 (GRATON-SALES VOLUME) V. 1: AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING, METALLURGICAL AND PETROLEUM ENGINEERS, P. 370-399.

  • Deposit

    Heyl, A.V., 1983, Geologic characteristec of three major Mississippi Valley Districts: in International Conference on Mississippi Valley type lead-zinc deposits; Kisvarsanyi, G., Grant, S.K., Pratt, W.P., and Koenig, J.W., (eds.) , University of Missouri, Rolla, p. 27-60.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The stratigraphic section that contains the productive zone for mineral production occurs above the transition from deep marine sediments (fine-grained limestones with minor chert of the lower St. Louis Formation) to more shallow, near-shore well-sorted clastic oolites and fossil fragments of the Ste. Genevieve and Renault Formations. Limestone of the Renault Formation, which overlies the Ste. Genevieve, is oolitic and contains cross-beds, but is less pure and may be carbonaceous with minor pyrite. Overlying the Renault is the Bethel Formation, which is primarily sandstone with bottomset and foreset beds suggesting deposition in a deltaic environment. The Bethel Formation also contains some shale intervals. Pinckney (1976) suggests that the clastic and oolitic nature of the rocks of the mineralized zone indicates relatively high porosity at the time of deposition and burial. Porosity and permeability controls may have been critical for mineral deposition.
Deposit The fluorite deposits are of three major structural types: 1) veins and associated replacement bodies, 2) bedded deposits, and 3) solution-slump breccias. Veins principally occupy faults bounding horst and graben structures. Mineralization occurs as open-space fillings with minor wall replacement. Veins are all sizes, pinching and swelling erratically; some of the largest veins are in the Rosiclaire District in Illinois. Bedded deposits are long lenses found in oolitic limestone of the Ste. Genevieve Formation, and at base of the Bethel Formation. For bedded deposits, shale horizons may have acted as barriers to rising ore fluids, resulting in lateral fluid movement and mineral deposition. Solution-slump breccias are found in the Cave in Rock District of Illinois and may represent major channelways for ore-fluid movement, which resulted in limestone dissolution and accompany brecciation and slumping (Pinckney, 1976).
Deposit Fluid inclusion and mineral paragenesis shows a general temperature range of ore deposition between about 140 and 150 degrees C; in the areas of Hicks Dome, homogenization temperatures of 175 degrees C were measured in fluorite. Fluorite and other minerals were apparently deposited from concentrated Na-Ca-Cl basinal brines. Much of the fluorine in the system may have origniated in a deep-seated alkalic syenite that underlies Hicks Dome, migrating with magmatic fluids upward along faults. Mucho fot he zince, lead, barite, calcite and silica in the deposits may have formed directly from heated basinal brines (Heyl, 1983).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 30-DEC-03 Woodruff, Laurel G. U.S. Geological Survey Work done in Filemaker

Beyond USGS

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