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The Leadville Mill <br />M 1990 -057 <br />EXHIBIT B — SITE DESCRIPTION <br />Page 3 -3 <br />the intrusion of the porphyry and before the uplift of the range. In the uplift of the <br />range both eruptive sheets and sedimentary beds, with the included ore deposits, <br />were plicated and faulted, and by subsequent erosion an immense thickness of rocks <br />has been carried away, laying bare the very lowest rocks in the conformable series; <br />the outcrops are, however, frequently buried beneath what is locally called "wash," a <br />detrital formation of glacial origin. In the Leadville region, owing to the reduplication <br />caused by faulting, a series of outcrops of easterly dipping beds of the Blue <br />Limestone are exposed beneath the wash, of which all are metalliferous and a <br />considerable proportion carry pay ore. <br />The district is a highly faulted area; intruded with Tertiary quartz monzonite <br />porphyries, on the east side of the Arkansas River graben, part of the Rio Grande Rift <br />system. <br />The silver occurs associated with manganese and lead in veins, stock works, and <br />manto -type deposits in the Mississippian Leadville Limestone (here a dolomite), the <br />Devonian Dyer Dolomite, and the Ordovician Manitou Dolomite. Ore minerals are <br />pyrite, sphalerite, and galena, in jasperoid and manganosiderite gangue. In upper <br />levels, the ore minerals are oxidized to cerussite, anglesite, and smithsonite. <br />The site is located between the Mosquito Range to the east and the Sawatch Range <br />to the west in Southern Rocky Mountain province. The province elevation ranges <br />from 6,000ft to over 14,000ft. The rocks range in age from the Precambrian (950 to <br />1,800 million years old) consisting of igneous and metasediments largely granites, <br />gneiss, and schist; and geologically recent Tertiary volcanic and intrusive rocks. The <br />units are fractured crystalline aquifers that supply most of the domestic needs in the <br />mountainous portion of the state. (Groundwater Atlas of Colorado, 2003). <br />3.3 ORE DEPOSITS <br />The principal ore deposits of Leadville occur, as above indicated, in the Blue <br />Limestone and at or near its contact with the overlying bodies of porphyry. The ores <br />consist mainly of carbonate of lead, chloride of silver and argentiferous galena, in a <br />gangue of silica and clay, with oxides of iron and manganese and some barite. These <br />materials are mainly of secondary origin, and result from the alteration by surface <br />waters of metallic sulfides. The study of these deposits has shown: <br />Version 1.0 April 2013 <br />