Most economic deposits of non-ferrous metals occur as sulfide minerals e.g. galena, PbS; sphalerite, ZnS; chalcopyrite, CuFeS 2.
The chief ore is zinc blende, or sphalerite (see Blende), which generally contains, in addition to zinc sulphide, small amounts of the sulphides of iron, silver and cadmium.
The principal ores are galena, sphalerite or zinc blende and smithsonite or zinc carbonate, which is locally called "dry bone" and which was the first zinc ore mined in the state.
The sulfide minerals recorded from the lodes comprise pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite and arsenopyrite.