One of the earliest mining ventures in the United States, possibly worked as early as the mid-1600s for iron (Skehan 2001). Nickel was first mined here in 1876. The deposit consists primarily of amphibolite containing nickel in disseminated copper and iron sulfides.
Hovey (1879) provided the following description of the mine:
"Tradition has it that this mine was discovered and worked about two hundred years ago and recent discoveries fortify the truth of the tradition. In some of the old deeds conveying the property, allusion is made to the 'valuable mineral deposits' which were then supposed to be gold and silver. Nickel which resembles silver in external appearance, was not known till 1751 - more than half a century after this mine is supposed to have been opened.
On the table before you there are two large fragments of a drill which is supposed to have been used at that time, and also an 'assay' undoubtedly made at the same period and as no silver was found, the disappointment resulted in the abandonment of the work. Both the 'assay' and the drill were taken in their present condition from the freshly-opened mine. Upon examination in 1876 it was found that a shaft about eight feet in diameter had been sunk to a depth of forty three feet. It was nearly half filled with earth and debris, including timbers, indicating that it had once been covered with a building.
The chartered company owning this mine and the surrounding acreage under which it is presumed nickel exists in large quantities, has quietly pursued its operations of development for fully two years. It has sunk the shaft to a depth of sixty-one feet and has made drifts of varying lengths to all the cardinal points, so as to settle beyond question that the metal exists there in such quantity and quality as to warrant a large expenditure for its development and production. Plans are now in preparation for apparatus and buildings for working the mine on a large scale."
Mineral List
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References
Hovey, Charles (1879). Past, Present, and Future of Lowell. Read February 12, 1879.
Contributions of the Old Residents' Historical Association, Lowell, Mass., Volume 1, pp. 385-385.
Sawyer, Alfred (1908). Early Mining Operations Near Lowell in
Contributions of the Lowell Historical Society, vol. 1., 1913.
Coburn, Silas R. (1922). History of Dracut, Massachusetts, pp. 285-288.
Fairbanks, Ernest E. (1923). Notes on Massachusetts Minerals (
American Mineralogist 8:130)
Short, M. N. and Shannon, Earl V. (1930).
Violarite and other rare nickel sulphides (
American Mineralogist 15:1-22.)
Phelan, Stephan Rice (1934). Plan for an Electromagnetic Survey on Nickel Mine Hill Sulphide Body, Dracut, Mass. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of General Engineering)
Dennen, W. H. (1943). A nickel deposit near Dracut, Mass. (Econ. Geol. 38: 25-55.)
Skehan, James (2001). Roadside Geology of Massachusetts.
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