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  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

SE Alabama Iron District

Past Producer in Coffee county in Alabama, United States with commodity Iron
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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. Nearby scientific data
  8. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  9. Production statistics
  10. Reserves and resources
  11. Links to other databases
  12. Bibliographic references
  13. General comments
  14. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10400294
Record type District
Current site name SE Alabama Iron District

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -86.06685, 31.4137 (WGS84)
Location accuracy 10000(meters)
Relative position Position is roughly the center of an eleven county area.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Coffee(county)

Alabama(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Elba(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Andalusia(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Andalusia(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Pea(hydrologic unit)

Choctawhatchee(hydrologic accounting unit)

Choctawhatchee-Escambia(hydrologic subregion)

South Atlantic-Gulf(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Alabama Coffee

Comments on the location information

  • The Southeast Alabama Iron District includes eleven counties: Barbour, Butler, Coffee, Conecuh, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston, and Pike. The district is bordered by Florida to the south and Georgia to the east. The town of Elba, in Coffee County, is at the approximate center of the district.



    Rail, road, and water transpotation systems traverse the district and provide access to all of the counties. Access would be provided by a network of secondary roads which exist throughout the district, with additional roads developed as neccessary. Eufaula, Alabama, located in Butler County, is on the Chattahoochee River and serves as a river port to the Gulf of Mexico.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Iron Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Goethite Ore
Siderite Ore
Quartz Gangue
Feldspar Gangue
Calcite Gangue
Pyrolusite Gangue
Manganite Gangue

Nearby scientific data

(1) -86.06685, 31.4137
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • The Southeast Alabama District is characterized by southeast-trending sedimentary formations which dip to the southwest at 1.9 to 2.8 meters per kilometer. East of Geneva County, the strike gradually changes to an east-west orientation; average strike is approximately N 85 W. The strike and dip of brown iron ore deposits parallel the local structure.

    Bedrock ranges from Upper Cretaceous to Recent and consists of deeply weathered unconsolidated clay, marl, limestone, calcarious sandstone, and sand. Brown iron ore is found in Paleocene to Oligocene formations, and in residuum of Plaeocene to Miocene. In most instances, the ore zone occurs within the residuum of the Clayton and Porters Creek Formations in the northern half of the district and within residuum of the Moodys Branch, Ocala Limestone, Marianna Limestone, Bryam, and Chickasaw-hay Limestone Formations in the southern half.

    Brown iron ore deposits are scattered through the district and no significant pattern exists. The ore is found within a matrix of sand and clay in lenticular and undulatory zones. Although ore is usually found as a single bed, in some places two ore horizons are separated by a clay or clayey-sand bed. In most cases, ore is overlain by a thin quartzite bed and a clay horizon exists under the ore.

    Brown iron ore exists as an amorphous form of geothite (hydrated iron oxide), commonly termed limonite. The geothite deposits were formed under oxidizing conditions as a weathering product of iron bearing minerals in limestones and marls. These secondary replacement deposits occur most commonly in residuum of the limestones and marls.

    Ore is classified into three types: fine grained or granular, nodular, and fossileferous. The three ore types are usually mixed in one ore zone. Lumps of gray iron carbonate (siderite) are occasionally found in the ore zone.

    Significant or extensive deformation is rare. Small scale faulting and slumping, due primarily to the solution of limestone strata, has created bed displacements of up to 15.2 meters.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Significant No
Year of first production 1929
Production years 1929 - Butler County; 1939 - Crenshaw County; 1940 - Pike County

Production statistics

  • Year 1969
    Ore mined 291608mt
  • Year 1970
    Ore mined 101803mt
  • Year 1971
    Ore mined 414528mt
  • Year 1972
    Ore mined 323490mt
  • Year 1973
    Ore mined 113633mt
  • Year 1974
    Period 1929-1974
    Material crude ore
    Ore mined 44700000mt

Reserves and resources

  • Type In-situ
    Estimate year 1981
    Total resources 263000000mt ore
    Commodity Subtype Grade units Group Importance Year
    Iron 26.4 wt-pct Iron Primary 1981

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Copeland, C.W., Geology of the Alabama Coastal Plain, A Guidebook; Geological Survey of Alabama Circular 47, 1968, 97 p.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Brown iron ore deposits in the district are irregular and scattered. Ore zone thickness ranges from 0.3 meters to 6 meters, and averages approximately 1 meter. Overburden ranges from 0.6 meters to 12.2 meters and averages 6 meters.



The approximate areal extent of the deposit is 24,700 hectares for the district, of which approximately 13,500 hectares are in Barbour, Butler, Crenshaw, and Pike Counties. Idealized ore body dimensions are 15,713 meters long by 15,713 meters wide for the district; 11,617 meters by 11,617 meters for Barbour, Butler, Crenshaw, and Pike Counties.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-DEC-1981 Godesky, Douglas J. U.S. Bureau of Mines

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

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