Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Mineral, VA

Mineral is an incorporated town in Louisa County, Virginia, founded in 1890 and covering only about 0.9 square miles.

The town was originally known as Tolersville, but it adopted the name Mineral when it incorporated in 1902, in honor of the mining industry that supported the community.

Mineral was the center of gold mining activity in Louisa County, and during its heyday there were fifteen gold mines located within two miles of the town.

A zinc and lead mine also operated in the Mineral area into the 1970s, long after the gold boom faded, and iron and pyrite deposits along Contrary Creek were worked from the early 1700s onward.

As of the 2020 census, Mineral had a population of 470, according to the Census Bureau's 2020 Demographic Profile for the town.

The 2000 census counted 424 people in Mineral living in 172 households, so the town's population has grown only modestly over two decades.

The Mineral Historic District, along with the nearby Cuckoo district and the Harris-Poindexter House and Store, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with more than 200 contributing buildings and structures preserving the mining-era town.

At 1:51 p.m. on August 23, 2011, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake was centered about five miles south-southwest of Mineral, making the little town the namesake epicenter of the most widely felt earthquake in Virginia's recorded history.

The 2011 earthquake collapsed the roof of Mineral's town hall and heavily damaged three of Louisa County's six schools, though no one was killed.

Mineral describes itself as the gateway to Lake Anna, one of Virginia's largest inland lakes, and sits at a crossroads between Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Charlottesville in central Louisa County.