Geology of Industrial Minerals Field Trips

Millenium Harvest House Hotel
1345 Twenty-Eighth Street, Boulder, CO, USA 80302-6899 Phone: 303-443-3850 Email: boulder@mhrmail.com

Trip #1: Colorado Springs Cement & Stone Producers

Stop-1: Western Museum of Mining & Industry
Western Museum of Mining and Industry, where Colorado's rich mining heritage is brought to life through a variety of dynamic and interactive indoor and outdoor exhibits. http://www.wmmi.org/html/index.htm

Stop-2: Table Mountain Quarry
Table Mountain quarry, where the highly siliceous Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone is mined for riprap, road base, aggregate, and dimension stone. Nearby, large moss-covered talus blocks of the Dakota are sold through the landscape industry as highly-sought-after decorative moss-rock.

Stop-3: Holcim Cement - Florence
Holcim (US) Inc.'s cement manufacturing plant and quarry in Florence. Participants will be guided through Holcim's on-site quarries where limestone from the Cretaceous Fort Hays Member of the Niobrara Formation is mined as the principal raw ingredient, and the Cretaceous Codell Sandstone is mined for use as a silica additive. Pyrite nodules and fossils may be collected from spoils piles of the Niobrara Formation. The tour continues as our group is guided through the cement manufacturing plant to see the massive blending hall, corrective raw material silos, and rotary kiln. The highlight of the tour will be an open air elevator ride to the top of the pre-calcining tower where we will be treated to an aerial view of the plant and phenomenal views of the High Plains to the east and the Sangre de Cristo Range to the west. http://www.holcim.com/

Trip #2: Boulder to Morrison Aggregates

Stop-1: TXI Light-Weight Aggregate
TXI Operation's light-weight ag gregate plant. The Cretaceous Pierre Shale is mined on site and conveyed under Highway 93 to the processing plant. Our group will follow the path of the raw material through the testing and sizing station, along the catwalk to the rotary kiln, and out to the capture silos to examine the finished product. http://www.txi.com/products/aggregate/aggregate.html

Stop-2: Aggregate Industries Morrison Quarry
Aggregate Industries Morrison Quarry http://www.aggregate.com/

Stop-3: Redrocks Visitor Center
Meeting with concurrent spouse trip for dinner. www.denver.org/PhotoLib.aspx

Trip #3: Northern Front Range Stone Producers

Stop-3: Aggregate Quarry
60 million-year-old intrusion crushed for aggregate. http://www.aggregate.com/

Trip #4: Clay Resources & Products of the Golden Area

Stop-1: CSM Clay Pit
Clay Pit on Colorado School of Mines campus.

Stop-2: Coors Tek
Coors Tek (formerly Coors Ceramics) will provide a tour of one of their four facilities in Golden, where they produce a multitude of clay products ranging from basic tiles and crucibles to body armor and high-tech medical devices. http://www.coorstek.com/

Stop-3: Fossil Trace
Fossil tracks in former clay pits - now part of Fossil Trace Golf Course. http://www.dinoridge.org/golden.htm

Stop-4: Robinson Brick Plant
Robotic brick-making facility. http://www.robinsonbrick.com/

Trip #5 - Day 1: Analytical Labs, Stone, & Gypsum in Colorado

Stop-1: Rio Tinto Laboratories
Rio Tinto Mineral's analytical and product development labs in south Denver. This facility is the primary technical center for borate and talc-based products in the Americas. Here, participants will be treated to a first-hand view of the analytical equipment and product testing facilities used by the company to produce high-quality talc- and borate-based products for paint, paper, plastics and other markets.
http://www.riotinto.com/

Stop-3: Iron Mountain Tram
Take a tram ride up Iron Mountain, enjoy a catered dinner overlooking the Colorado River valley, and be treated to a special evening tour of the Fairy Caves. http://www.glenwoodcaverns.com/gc_history.html

Stop-4: Iron Mountain / Fairy Caves

Stop-5: Glenwood Hot Springs
Back at the hotel, participants may spend the later part of the evening soaking in the famous Glenwood Hot Springs. http://www.hotspringspool.com/

Trip #5 - Day 2: Analytical Labs, Stone, & Gypsum in Colorado

Stop-1: Yule Marble Quarry
World-renown Yule Marble quarry, origin of the pure white block of marble from which the Tomb of the Unknowns was carved. http://www.marblecolorado.net/ymq.html

Dotsero Volcano
Colorado's youngest volcano (4,000 years old), which is mined intermittently for scoria. http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1208-01-

Stop-2: American Gypsum Plant
American Gypsum's mine and wallboard plant. The thick deposits of gypsum mined here are from the Eagle Valley Formation, which was deposited in an arid basinal environment during Pennsylvanian time. http://americangypsum.com/

Route

Legend