Rockhounding in Essex County, MA: 16 USGS Mineral Sites (2026)

Check access before you go. Most sites listed here are old mines, quarries or prospects, and many are on private land or active mining claims. Get the landowner's permission, check the rules of the agency that manages any public land, and never enter mine workings. Locations are approximate.

Sketch map

Past ProducerProducerProspectOccurrenceStatus unknown

11 paw pins; nearby sites are grouped into one pin. Hover or tap a pin for the site name. 1 site(s) with USGS coordinates outside the outline are not pinned. County outline: US Census Bureau cartographic boundary file (2023). Locations approximate.

Woof’s favorite find

Chipman Mine

We picked it because its USGS record mentions 2 gem or collectible minerals (Gold, Silver) and 3 of our card minerals overall. No other named site here scores as high on both counts. USGS lists it as past producer for Lead. Minerals mentioned: Gold, Copper, Silver. Approx. location 42.783, -70.908. 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?

Past Producer

Produced ore or material at some point in the past.

Plant

A processing plant site.

Occurrence

The mineral was noted here, without development.

Producer

Was producing when the record was made.

Status terms come from USGS MRDS records.

Mineral cards

Silver
Mohs 2.5–3. Native silver tarnishes black. Mindat
4 sites
Gold
Mohs 2.5–3. Soft, heavy and bright yellow; it doesn’t tarnish. Mindat
3 sites
Copper
Mohs 2.5–3. Native copper is soft and turns green as it weathers. Mindat
1 site

Counts are sites whose USGS record mentions the mineral or commodity. Hardness from Mindat.

Minerals recorded here

Granite 2

Commodities

Granite 4Lead 2Iron 2Zirconium 2Gold 1Thorium 1Mercury 1Tungsten 1Sulfur 1Silver 1

Sites

Site	Commodity	Minerals recorded	Status	Approx. location
Town of Rockport	Granite	Granite	Past Producer	42.685, -70.636
Rockport Quarries Inc	Granite	Granite	Past Producer	42.671, -70.639
Newburyport Pb-A?^Ict	Lead	—	Past Producer	42.775, -70.932
Saugus Deposit	Iron	—	Occurrence	42.498, -70.989
Lynn Eastern Smelt & Refin Corp	Gold	—	Plant	42.447, -70.958
Thiokol Ventron Div--Danvers, Ma.	Thorium	—	Plant	42.570, -70.936
(Facility) Travers Labs Refinery--Beverly, Ma.	Mercury	—	Plant	42.547, -70.879
Hale Engineering Co--Danvers, Ma.	Tungsten	—	Plant	42.546, -70.939
Thiokol Ventron Div--Beverly, Ma.	Zirconium	—	Plant	42.550, -70.898
Ventron Corp--Beverly, Ma.	Zirconium	—	Past Producer	42.550, -70.898
Groveland Pit	—	—	Producer	42.752, -71.042
Town of Rockport Quarry	Granite	—	Past Producer	42.685, -70.636
Johnson Quarry	Granite	—	Past Producer	42.671, -70.639
Chipman Mine	Lead	—	Past Producer	42.783, -70.908
Harriman Mine	Sulfur	—	Past Producer	42.662, -70.997
Georgetown Mine	Iron	—	Past Producer	42.709, -71.000

Nearby counties

Suffolk County · Middlesex County · Plymouth County · Worcester County · Norfolk County

Massachusetts mineral guides

Back to all Massachusetts counties.

Is It Legal to Collect Rocks on Public Land? BLM, Forest Service and National Park Rules

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 October 2026

Rockhounding in Essex County, Massachusetts