Sterling Hill Mine

Hi mineral lovers! In this post I'm going to show you the Sterling Hill mine.


The Sterling Hill Mine is in New Jersey, United States. It was the last working underground mine in New Jersey when it closed in 1986. This mine is known for its variety of minerals, especially the fluorescent varieties. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 1991. Mining began at the site in the 1630s, when it was mistakenly thought to be a copper deposit and the mine closed in 1986.



In Sterling Hill mines, there're 357 types of minerals are known to occur; these make up approximately 10% of the minerals known to science. Thirty-five of these minerals have not been found anywhere else. Ninety-one of the minerals fluoresce.
The mine also has a tour that spends about 30 minutes inside the Exhibit hall which contains a wide variety of mining memorabilia, mineralogical samples, fossils, and meteorites. It then leads into the mine for a 1,300 feet walk on level ground through the underground mine. The walk goes through a new 240 feet (73 m) section called the Rainbow tunnel which they blasted in 1990 using 49 blasts and at a cost of $2 a foot.