From time to time, I see comments from people in Silverton lamenting the “good old days,” when mining provided jobs and supported the local economy.
That could be Silverton’s future as well as its history. Metal ores were created by hydrothermal deposition and enriched by supergene action, creating ore deposits at high elevations in volcanic rocks.
But there is a whole other class of possible ore deposits at depth where magma welled up below the volcanoes. There, magma met sedimentary rock and groundwater, a classic ore-forming combination. Differentiation within magma may have created even more kinds of ore deposits.
As far as I know, nobody has been or is looking deep, but that is a vast unexplored terrain and potential host for major ore deposits replicated in many mining districts worldwide.
William Jud
Fredericktown, Mo.
Editor’s note: William Jud is a former geologist at the Sunnyside Mine in Silverton.
