Little Cottonwood Creek (Salt Lake County, Utah) confluence with the Jordan River. The stream provides electrical power generation for Murray City. The first legitimate mining operation in Little Cottonwood Canyon was established in 1865. The ore deposits in Little Cottonwood Canyon yielded principally silver and lead with some copper, gold, and zinc. These ore deposits were formed mainly in shale, limestone, and dolomite. Galena or lead sulfide was the common primary lead mineral of the area. Argentite was found in most of the primary ores and was probably an abundant primary silver mineral. Ore production varied with time because of the nature of the deposits and the
Mineral Rock forming minerals – typically silicates or occasionally carbonates – have a specific gravity of 2.5–3.5. High specific gravity is a diagnostic property of a mineral. A variation in chemistry (and consequently, mineral class) correlates to a change in specific gravity. Among more common minerals, oxides and sulfides tend to have a higher specific gravity as they include elements with higher atomic mass. A generalization is that minerals with metallic or adamantine lustre tend to have higher specific gravities than those having a non-metallic to dull lustre. For example, hematite, FeO, has a specific gravity of 5.26 while galena, PbS,