Quarries, Mining, and the Like

I get a little bit amused as of late when people start talking about others in the mining and quarrying business, especially when they don't know the background on what they're talking about. Some people talk like they're 'experts', and they're not. Some individuals (particularly gossipy ones) say, "Well, my son (daughter, niece, nephew, etc.) has been working at (has been doing business with, has been to, etc.) that place, and he/she says.......". Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's sad. Most times, those who haven't been there, done that talk like authorities that they are not.

I promise you that my facts are straight, having either BEEN THERE, RESEARCHED THAT, or BEEN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PLACE. No second hand stuff.

First off....Missouri is blessed with an abundance of limestone quarries. LOTS of them. There are none in the Mississippi River alluvium counties of Pemiscot, New Madrid, Dunklin, and Misssissippi, but there are loads in other places that make up for it. I've been to a LOT of the quarries in the state as a function of my job, from the Lafarge quarry at Marshall Junction to the underground limestone mine at Sugar Creek (LaFarge's Courtney Ridge Property near Independence, Missouri) to Boone Quarries near Columbia, to the Weber O'Fallon quarry in O'Fallon, to Eminence quarry near Eminence.....the list goes on and on...... Folks need to realize that the number one industrial mineral in both absolute dollar value and tonnage mined EVERY SINGLE YEAR in the United States is LIMESTONE AND CONSTRUCTION AGGREGATE. Without a doubt. It's everywhere....the concrete and asphalt that we walk on....cinder blocks to make buildings....cement, concrete.......need I say more?

I even get to see stone occasionally that others might not...like from South Dakota a few months back. There's a formation in the Rapid City area known as the Sioux Quartzite. It's Precambrian in age, meaning greater than 540 million years old. It's actually pretty damn close to a sandstone, except the grains are welded together from the confining pressure. Supposedly, it's pretty good for coarse aggregate for asphalt. There are some clayey seams to it, and these seams are a sort of metamorphosed claystone that are called "catlinite", or "pipestone", since it can be carved into pipes, like the Lakota used for peace pipes and such. There's even a Pipestone National Monument. Well, I get on the Internet to learn a little more, and sure enough, there's a picture of the quarry. I explained the problem to the aggregate laboratory that we have, and they agreed with me, and it took all of 15 minutes! Sometimes, you do quarry geology from your desk, but I MUCH prefer being there.

Until next time,

Trenchless Geologist