Talk:Iron Mountain Mine

Unactive Link
The link in Reference #2 does not access the page anymore; the link may be outdated.

Julie22193 01:13, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

-3.6 pH?!
A solution in water can't have a pH of -3.6 because this means it has a hydronium concentration of 10^3.6 > 1000 M. Pure water is only about 55 M water at normal pressures. The link for Reference #2 is active now; I have every reason to doubt it, but no idea what the pH should be. 71.8.223.241 03:40, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. Two degrees in chemical engineering lead me to doubt this value. 71.81.53.198 04:20, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

EDIT - I have to eat my words! Learning truly does continue beyond university. One has to take activity corrections into account, and in the case of acid mine drainage one can achieve negative pH values at "normal" concentrations (on the order of 10-100 M)!!! Read up on the "Explanation" section of Wikipedia's article on pH: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH 71.81.53.198 04:26, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

History
Looking at enlarging history section, which is rather thin at this point. Probably begin with Whitney's 1860s report, then the 1880s-1893 silver operation, and into the British Mountain Copper Company, Ltd, dividing its story into four or so sections (early bonanza and environmental damage, 1894-1907; enlargement of pyrite mining and impacts; gold mining years of, mostly 1930s; and then World War II and post war years to shut-down). Plenty of literature on the operation, mostly promotional, but some good works. Comments welcome VT440genoa (talk) 21:19, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

Such a long story but I will start at the beginning,my great great great grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Harrison along with two other mining partners made the first discovery at what is know Iron Mountain. 1852 my great great great grandfather named it Pump town,they all started mining claims Quartz Hill became it's knew handle,also Buckeye, Fixhistoryman101 (talk) 01:12, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

Additional Microbes
Several research studies investigate the microbes found in the drainage including Fungi(https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00238/full) and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19719632/ might be worth adding some summary of these findings.

1871 newspaper showing Magee and Camden's mining claim in the Iron Mountains
 * Remove "Iron Mountain the first discovery of valuable mineral deposits was discovered by three men. (In1852) Thomas Jefferson Harrison, Robert Lyon,and Stephan Alozo Meek.it became known as Pump Town, later to become Buckeye, gold was discovered in Quartz,and so it became known as Quartz Hill,all three men had mines on the hill.1892 the three partners sold their claims to a company bast out of Chicago Quartz Hill Gold mining company,cook county Illinois." Possibly replace with a note about surveyor William Magee and settler Charles Camden discovering the deposits by noticing the color of the exposed rock. More on this at this USGS site, which appears to have been cited many other places :
 * The section suggested for removal lacks sources, contradicts the discovery of Iron Mountain mineral deposits established elsewhere, is full of typos, and contains irrelevant stuff like supposedly being named Buckeye at some point. Additionally, based on commentary on the talk page this section seems to be based on hearsay from someone's relative? :
 * References supporting the possible change (format using the "cite" button):

One source that references the above newspaper.

And some lovely other general resources on the mine that support the suggestion above.

If you're interested in the wild toxicity of this mine, you might enjoy this article :)

Xanadu02 (talk) 04:36, 2 December 2021 (UTC)