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Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, and manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. This locale produced more species of minerals (over 300) and more different fluorescent minerals than any other location. The mineral association (assemblage) from Franklin includes willemite, zincite and franklinite.
During the mid-to-late 19th century the furnace was the center of a large iron making operation. Russian people, Chilean people, British people, Irish people, Hungarian people and Polish people immigrants came to Franklin to work in the mines, and the population of Franklin swelled from 500 (in 1897) to over 3,000 (in 1913).Truran, William R. Images of America: Franklin, Hamburg, Ogdensburg, and Hardyston. (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2004).
The Furnace mine, which was adjacent to the actual furnace, was a 120+ foot vertical shaft just under Franklin Falls.
Other rare minerals include esperite, clinohedrite, hardystonite, and others. There are scores of minerals found only here, such as johnbaumite (an arsenous apatite), etc.
Sterling Hill, a very similar zinc orebody, is located a few miles away in Ogdensburg.
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