Oxford Stone Co. Quarry (Tilcon New Jersey Quarry), White Township, Warren County, New Jersey, USAi

Regional Level Types
Oxford Stone Co. Quarry (Tilcon New Jersey Quarry)	Quarry
White Township	Township
Warren County	County
New Jersey	State
USA	Country

The Oxford quarry is located approximately 4600 feet southeast of the intersection of US Route 46 and County Route 519. It is approximately 1900 feet, pit center to pit center, northwest of a large quarry in Precambrian (Franklin?) marble listed in Mindat as the Edison Cement Co. quarry.

The Oxford quarry was initially opened by the Oxford Stone Co. circa 1960 and was operated under that name by the Perrucci brothers until about 1978. The first intensive period of operation was in the mid to late 1960’s and was driven by the demand for base course material for the construction of Interstate 80. After 1978 the property was dormant for nearly 10 years before it was purchased and reactivated by the Millington Quarry Co. (T/A Oxford Quarry, Inc.) which was subsequently absorbed by Tilcon New Jersey. Both Oxford Quarry, Inc. and Tilcon have worked the adjacent marble quarry.

The Oxford quarry exposes mixed gneisses near the northwestern margin of highlands known geologically as the Reading Prong. This locality is in the lower part of an imbricate thrust slice in relatively close proximity to regional thrust faults and to Paleozoic age sedimentary rocks. These factors, in addition to a country rock that is relatively rich in calcium and deficient in aluminium, are common to all eight (probably nine) known axinite-group mineral occurrences along the northwest edge of the Reading Prong highlands exclusive of the Franklin zinc ore body. Of the 8 localities Oxford was the 6th to be discovered. It is by far the most extensive, best developed and best known.

The gneisses are extensively fractured. Nearly all the mineralization of interest has been found in a NW striking fracture zone in the eastern end of the quarry. The country rock in this part of the pit is migmatized hornblende gneiss. This fracture zone was not sharply defined and was never mapped precisely but was at least 50 feet wide and was traceable for at least 400 feet. Just beyond this zone’s southern limit of exposure is the faulted contact with the Precambrian (Franklin ?) marble. The extent of this fracture zone into the marble is unknown.

Within the fracture zone epigenetic mineral assemblages crystallized in open space in both narrow, high angle fissures and in en echelon vein arrays, commonly referred to as “gash veins”. Individual fissures were up to several 10’s of feet long but rarely more than 2 inches wide. The gash veins were generally less than a foot long and 2 inches wide. They often had striking, sinusoidal form. The margins of both the fissures and gashes were typically sharp with little visible wall rock alteration. The epigenetic mineralization appears to be alpine cleft type.

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