Geology and mineral deposits of the Roseland District of central Virginia

Abstract

The Roseland district of Nelson and Amherst Counties, Va., is centered on an intermontane basin along the southeastern margin of the Blue Ridge. The Grenville-age igneous rocks in this area are less altered than elsewhere in the Blue Ridge, and exposure is sufficient to map their relations. The district was formerly an important producer of titanium minerals and still contains over 5 percent of U.S. identified resources of those minerals. The valuable minerals, rutile and ilmenite, formed in two stages which largely correlate with anorthosite and ferrodiorite, respectively.