Dyers Hill Mine, Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky, USAi

Regional Level Types
Dyers Hill Mine	Mine
Smithland	Village
Livingston County	County
Kentucky	State
USA	Country

Dyers Hill Mine, Smithland, Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District, USA

Located 3.5 miles north of Smithland, the Dyers Hill mine might be considered to be an outlier in the district. It was established after numerous diamond drill cores were taken along the hanging wall of the Dyers Hill fault. Exploration began in 1950 and was cmpleted in 1952. Tibbs (1974) reported that "the main Dyers Hill fault was mineralized for a distance of 4,200 feet overall, and the vein varied from 1 foot to over 300 feet in width. It had an economic minable depth of about 400 feet."
Dominant components in the main vein are fluorite, calcite, sedimentary rocks, and aragonite(?). Barite was found in minor concentrations near the top of the deposit, some 200 feet beneath the surface. Sphalerite and galena are minor components 9less than 3%). Very little crystalline fluorite was found. It was mainly massive and colorless to brown. At the northeast end of the mine, voids containing calcite crystals up to 45 cm in length were found (Tibbs, 1974).
Ore was mined by shrinkage stoping at the 350, 520 and 690-foot levels. Production of 85 tons per day was reached in 1956, and a maximum of 550 tons per day was reached in 1965. By 1968, the mine had become unprofitable and was closed. [A. Goldstein, Min. Rec. 27:1, 1997 p.9]

References:
Tibbs, J.S. (1974) Geology and history of Pennwalt Corps. Dyers Hill mine, Livingston Co., Kentucky, in Hutcheson, D.W., ed., A symposium on the geology of fluorspar - Forum on the Geology of Industrial Minerals, 9th Proceedings. Kentucky Geological Survey, series 10, Special Publication 22, 87 - 95.

McGrain, P. & Tibbs, J.S. (1973) Geologic Guide to a portion of the fluorspar mining district in Livingston and Crittenden Counties, Kentucky. KGS, 12p.

Rocks & Min.:64:17

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