West Torrington nickel mines (Coe Copper Mine; Hodges Mine; Barber Mine; Torrington Nickel Mine), Torrington (Wolcottville), Litchfield County, Connecticut, USAi

Regional Level Types
West Torrington nickel mines (Coe Copper Mine; Hodges Mine; Barber Mine; Torrington Nickel Mine)	Group of Mines
Torrington (Wolcottville)	Municipality
Litchfield County	County
Connecticut	State
USA	Country

A group of mines and prospects near each other with connecting trenches originally owned by Willard Barber and Alpheus Hodges, the pentlandite ore (with pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite) was discovered in 1855. They were worked unsuccessfully until 1877 and 1887. Before that copper was obtained from the associated chalcopyrite as the Israel Coe Mine starting in the 1830s, but was perhaps prospected at least as far back as 1752. One was worked for a time by John Buell, who also worked places in NE Litchfield several km south of these mines. Coordinates are for the Hodges mine shaft.

As summarized by Domonell (1997), in 1957, geologist William Moore conducted detailed geophysical surveys of the Hodges Mine for the Falconbridge Nickel Company of Canada and noted that the ore occurred in a mineralized dike approximately one hundred feet wide and at least 300 feet long. He conducted an extensive drilling program and had samples assayed. One hole had in the last 15 feet heavy sulfide mineralization that assayed at 2.71 percent copper and 0.60 percent nickel, or a value of approximately $24 a ton, considerably richer than the material found on the old mine dumps. The first deposit was found about 150 feet underground and about 200 feet thick, with another 200-foot wide ore body found 200 feet further west. Moore had formed the United States Nickel Corporation and approached the town about mining, but in the end the idea died due to pollution concerns and other difficulties with local regulations. The land and mineral rights are now owned by the Torrington Water Company.

Also according to Domonell (1997):



Merguerian (1985) notes that the sulfides occur as grains in the rocks of the Hodges Complex, a series of intrusives consisting of a gabbro-diorite pluton cross-cut by hornblendite and pyroxenite ultramafic rocks. These rocks have been metamorphosed and overprinted. Relict olivine, entstatite, hypersthene, augite and hornblende have been corroded and replaced by tremolite, actinolite, anthophyllite, cummingtonite, hornblende, magnesian chlorite, calcite, talc, and serpentine minerals.

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