The St John's Mine is a mineral extraction site approximately three miles north of the city of Vallejo in

Solano County Solano County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 453,491. The county seat is Fairfield. Solano County comprises the Vallejo–Fairfield, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which i ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The St John's site was used for extraction of

cinnabar Cinnabar (), or cinnabarite (), from the grc, κιννάβαρι (), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of Mercury sulfide, mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining mercury (element), elemental mercury and ...

in the early 1900s. The St. John's Mine is classified as a medium priority mine from the standpoint of environmental oversight.Oversight of inactive mercury mines in California
The last inspection of the Hastings Mine occurred in 1997 and found only slight erosion of the considerable mine

tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlie ...

; however the tailings exceed of material, or one of the largest cinnabar tailings in the State of California. Furthermore, the drainage from St. John's Mine flows to

receiving waters Receiving may refer to: * ''Kabbalah'', "receiving" in Hebrew * Receiving department (or receiving dock), in a distribution center * Receiving house, a theater * Receiving line, in a wedding reception * Receiving mark, postmark * Receiving par ...

Rindler Creek Rindler Creek is a stream that rises on Sulfur Springs Mountain in southwestern Solano County, California. A stream restoration project has been conducted to reverse the damage of cattle overgrazing. One goal of this project is to enhance habita ...

and thence to Lake Chabot. Miles of underground shafts were driven in the course of working the quicksilver deposits in the area. In 1989, Earth Metrics reviewed old 1918 maps of workings of the

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

and St. John's Mines and found that mine shafts were not driven into the site prior to the year 1918.C.Michael Hogan, Marc Papineau et al., ''Environmental Assessment of the Columbus Parkway Widening between Ascot Parkway and the Northgate Development, Vallejo'', Earth Metrics Inc. Report 7853, California State Clearinghouse, Sept, 1989

Environmental effects

Principal ongoing impact is from mercury contamination of spring water flowing beneath the site; moreover, historical analysis has shown that the volume of spring water itself has been greatly reduced from levels of a century ago. This reduction of spring flow has come about due to the extensive mine shafts driven to achieve the cinnabar extraction.

References

{{SolanoCountyCA-geo-stub Mines in California History of Solano County, California Buildings and structures in Solano County, California Geography of Solano County, California

Environmental effects

See also

References