May Presentation: Zinc Mining in the Friedensville, PA and the Birth of the U.S. Zinc Industry, by L. Michael Kaas

by Laura Dwyer, MSDC Member

Underground exploration at the New Hartman Mine by the New Jersey Zinc Company, circa 1916-1917. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

In 1853, the small mining town of Friedensville, Pennsylvania, and Bethlehem,
located 4 miles to the north, became the centers of commercial production of
high-purity zinc oxide in the U. S. In the early 1860's, a new zinc smelter in
Bethlehem, using Friedensville ore, primarily hemimorphite and smithsonite,
produced the first commercial zinc metal in the U. S.

When mining stopped in 1893, there was plenty of ore still in the ground at Friedensville. Exploration by the New Jersey Zinc Company eventually led to the
rebirth of the mining district in 1958 with the opening of the underground
Friedensville Mine. Using bulk mining and modern milling technology to mine sphalerite, the mine operated until 1983. Sphalerite was the ore mineral. Since mine closure, much of the New Jersey Zinc property has been redeveloped for non-mining uses.

Speaker Bio

L. Michael Kaas is a retired government senior executive and mining engineer who has worked with the U. S. Bureau of Mines, Office of the Secretary of Interior, IBM Corporation, and several mining companies. He received a BS degree in mining engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and a MS degree in mineral engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Mike was an early innovator in the development of computer applications for the mining industry. During his 20 years with the Bureau of Mines, he was responsible for programs in minerals information and analysis, resource evaluation, mineral land assessment, and environmental research. His love for minerals started when he was a kid knocking around Maine pegmatites during the summers.

For more than 20 years, Mike has been a volunteer at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. He is a long-time mining history buff and a member of the Mining History Association. His historical research includes the Friedensville, PA Zinc Mining District; the Silver Hill Mine in the Cid District near Lexington, NC; and the Bertha and Austinville mines in southwestern VA. He is the author of several papers on technical topics and mining history.