the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad extended branch lines to pyrite mines north of Mineral in Louisa County
Source: Library of Congress, Map of northern Virginia (1894)
the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad extended branch lines to pyrite mines north of Mineral in Louisa County
Source: Library of Congress, Map of northern Virginia (1894)
The first mining of pyrite deposits in Louisa County targeted the iron, rather than the sulfur component in FeS2.
After being exposed recently (in geologic time) to the surface, weathering created a deep surface coating of saprolite above the less-altered bedrock. Feldspar crystals decayed into clay particles, and other minerals were leached out and transported downstream by rain and groundwater. The saprolite near the surface was enriched with iron and sulfur, which bonded with iron to create crystals of pyrite or "fools gold."
The Sulfur Mine opened around 1840 on Contrary Creek. Ore was smelted in the Rough and Ready furnace and the Victoria furnace, then "pigs" of iron were shipped to Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond.
Mining of the iron ore continued until 1874, when mining stopped due to the Panic of 1874 (a financial recession) combined with exhaustion of the iron-rich ore.
In 1881, a new approach targeted production of sulfur, with iron production as a byproduct.1
The mining activity in the area led the town of Tolersville to change its name to Mineral in 1902.2