Byram Crushed Stone Quarry (Tilcon Byram Quarry), Byram Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, USAi

Regional Level Types
Byram Crushed Stone Quarry (Tilcon Byram Quarry)	Quarry
Byram Township	Township
Sussex County	County
New Jersey	State
USA	Country

This quarry, now quite extensive, was started in the late 1960’s. Until the mid 1990’s it was operated by Peter Kero, a construction contractor. After being owned for a few years by the Millington Quarry Co. the property came under the control of Tilcon, a part of the Irish conglomerate Oldcastle. The quarry is just east of Rt 206 approximately 3000 feet northwest of the intersection of this road and Lake Lackawanna Road. The quarry exposes mostly gneissic granitic rocks assigned to the Bryam Intrusive Suite (Drake, 1984; Volkert, et al, 1989). On the west side of the quarry, just off Rt. 206, marble and calc-silicate lithologies outcropped in a small area .

The marble in the Byram quarry is associated with calc silicate rocks including diopsidite and an amphibolite gneiss. The outcrop of this group of lithologies is small, 500 X 300 feet and surrounded by granitic intrusive rocks. In exposures available in the 1980’s and 90’s the calcite ranged from near white to salmon. Euhedral crystals of diopside, up to 2 inches , were common. These crystals were typically light green and contained inclusions of a light to moderate brown mica, probably phlogopite.

The largest diopside crystals, up to 4 or 5 inches, came from a transition zone between marble and diopsidite. Locally the diopsidite contained enough coarsely crystalline calcite to allow the development and recovery of euhedral crystals. In this material much of the diopside was superficially altered to fiberous amphibole. Apatite was locally abundant. The crystals ranged up to 3 inches, were often crude and distorted by deformation and were typically dull, off white with a vaguely purplish gray cast. The diopsidite also contained a dark, coarsely crystalline mica, possibly phlogopite but more likely biotite. Most of the diopsidite was coarsely crystalline, massive and did not have a gneissic texture.

Beyond the diopsidite, to the west, is an amphibolite containing tiny, blue, subhedral apatite grains. This rock had a gneissic texture for the most part but contained areas that did not.

Elsewhere in this quarry pegmatites, with much reddish pink microcline, were encountered on rare occasions. These pegmatites contained large allanite blades, up to 2 or 3 inches. The allanite was metamict, crumbled rapidly on exposure and could not be extracted in any worthwhile form.

Since the early 1990’s the outcrops of the marble/calc-silicate complex have mostly been flattened into the quarry floor or buried under a large berm constructed to conceal the pit from highway 206.

The marble in this quarry is the closest example of this lithology to Lockwood, a place on highway 206 approximately 5,400 feet to the southwest. As discussed under that locality a group of minerals recorded for it seem typical of the Franklin marble, whose nearest approach is at least 8 miles north. Although the mineral species that occur in the Byram quarry are included in the Lockwood list this author has never seen spinel, chondrodite or graphite at this locality. Whether this small area of marble is the source of the minerals ascribed to Lockwood is unclear.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References