Mineral resources of the Mill Creek, Mountain Lake, and Peters Mountain Wilderness Study Areas, Craig and Giles counties, Virginia and Monroe County, West Virginia

Abstract

Bureau of Mines have been conducting mineral surveys of wilderness, wilderness study, and primitive areas. Studies and reports of all primitive areas have been completed. Areas officially designated as "wilderness," "wild," or "canoe" when the Act was passed were incorporated into the National Wilderness Preservation System, and some of them are presently being studied. For wilderness study areas, the mineral surveys constitute one aspect of the suitability studies. This report discusses the results of a mineral survey of some national forest lands in the Mill Creek, Mountain Lake, and Peters Mountain study areas, Virginia and West Virginia, that are being considered for wilderness designation (PL 93-622, January 3, 1975). The areas studied are in the Jefferson National Forest in Giles and Craig Counties, Va., and Monroe County, W.Va.

Mineral resources of the Barbours Creek and Shawvers Run Wilderness Study Areas, Craig County, Virginia

“…The analytical data for samples from the study areas compare closely with analyses on similar samples collected in the Dolly Ann Roadless Area, Alleghany County (Lesure, 1982) (fig. 1 ), in the Rich Hole Roadless Area, Alleghany and Rockbridge Counties (Lesure, 1986) ( fig.1), and in the Mill Creek, Mountain Lake, and Peters Mountain Wilderness Study Areas, Craig and Giles Coun-, ties, Va., and Monroe County, W. Va. (Lesure and others, 1982).…”

“…Iron and manganese are the only metallic mineral resources reported for the areas adjacent to the study areas. Zinc is a trace to minor constituent (0.005-1.0 percent) in the limonitic iron ores (Lesure, 1982(Lesure, , 1986. Barium (220-5,000 parts per million (ppm)), cobalt ( < 20-3,300 ppm), lead ( < 20-1,600 ppm), manganese (400-16,000 ppm), and nickel (47-4,000 ppm) also occur in anomalously high trace amounts in the limonite deposits in the Lower Devonian formations.…”

Mineral resources of the Rich Hole Roadless Area, Alleghany and Rockbridge counties, Virginia

“…The analytical data for samples from the Rich Hole Roadless Area compare closely with analyses on similar samples collected in the Dolly Ann Roadless Area, Alleghany County (Lesure, 1982), and in the Mill Creek, Mountain Lake, and Peters Mountain Wilderness Study Areas, Craig and Giles Counties, Va., and Monroe County, W.Va. (Lesure and others, 1982). These four study areas, which are between 15 and 60 mi to the southwest, have the same rock formations exposed as in Rich Hole.…”

“…Several traverses across the outcrop belts of the Romney Shale using a four-channel gamma-ray spectrometer indi-cate that, in the Rich Hole Roadless Area, the black shale of the Romney is only a little more radioactive than the lighter colored shales of other formations. Six samples of black shale collected from the Romney Shale in the Rich Hole area contain 0.15-24 ppm uranium (Bailey and others, 1985, p. 3),and similar samples from 4 to 25 mi away contain from less than 1 to as much as 14 ppm uranium (Hasson, 1977, appendix III;Lesure, 1982). These findings support Hasson (1977, p. 41), who concluded "the Millboro (upper Romney) Shale of Virginia contains too little uranium to be a potential source.…”

“…Zinc is a trace constituent (0.005-1.0 percent) in the limonitic iron ores (Lesure, 1982(Lesure, , 1986, and sediment samples from many streams draining areas that include the iron deposits have higherthan-background zinc content. Barium (220-5,000 parts per million), cobalt (<20-3,300 ppm), lead (<20-1,600 ppm), manganese (0.005-16 percent), and nickel (47-4,000 ppm) also occur in anomalously high trace amounts in the limonite deposits in the Lower Devonian formations.…”