RockWoofSketch map
Woof’s favorite find
Iowa Fuel & Minls. Coal Prep. Plant
We picked it because its USGS record mentions 1 of the minerals on our cards and 1 of our card minerals overall. No other named site here scores as high on both counts. USGS lists it as plant for Bituminous. Minerals mentioned: Pyrite. Approx. location 41.200, -93.017. USGS record.
Ask first: a USGS record doesn’t mean you can visit. Find out who owns the land and get permission before collecting.
Field cards: what kind of sites?
Produced ore or material at some point in the past.
A processing plant site.
Status terms come from USGS MRDS records.
Mineral cards
Pyrite
Mohs 6–6.5. Brassy “fool’s gold,” often cubic. Mindat
1 site
Counts are sites whose USGS record mentions the mineral or commodity. Hardness from Mindat.
Minerals recorded here
Sphalerite 5Commodities
Zinc 5Bituminous 1Flagstone 1Sites
| Site | Commodity | Minerals recorded | Status | Approx. location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drill Hole | Zinc | Sphalerite | Past Producer | 41.321, -93.215 |
| Occurrence | Zinc | Sphalerite | Past Producer | 41.487, -93.205 |
| Drill Hole | Zinc | Sphalerite | Past Producer | 41.417, -93.316 |
| Drill Hole | Zinc | Sphalerite | Past Producer | 41.261, -93.097 |
| Occurrence | Zinc | Sphalerite | Past Producer | 41.454, -93.049 |
| Iowa Fuel & Minls. Coal Prep. Plant | Bituminous | — | Plant | 41.200, -93.017 |
| Red Rock Quarry | Flagstone | — | Past Producer | 41.430, -93.129 |
Fossil collections
The Paleobiology Database lists 2 fossil collection records in Marion County. These are research records, not public dig sites.
Nearby counties
Jasper County · Lucas County · Mahaska County · Monroe County · Polk County
Iowa mineral guides
Back to all Iowa counties.
How we built this page: we counted named sites in the USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) for this area, left out sand, gravel, crushed stone, clay pits and unnamed sites, grouped them by Census county, and linked every site to its USGS record. We did not visit these sites, and MRDS does not tell you who owns the land or whether collecting is allowed.
Source: USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS). USGS ceased systematic updates to MRDS around 2011, so status and details may be out of date. Each site links to its USGS record.
Updated