Antlerite

specimen number:
2351057

location:
Santa Catalina Mine, Sierra Gorda, Antofagasta, Chile

description:
Excellent for the species, glistening green crystallized fluorite quite rich across one side of this matrix. The specimen comes with a previous label from Terry Szenics.

The Santa Catalina Mine, located in the Sierra Gorda district of the Antofagasta Region within Chile's Atacama Desert, is situated over a prominent Paleocene-age porphyry copper and molybdenum orebody. Geological processes led to extensive secondary enrichment near the surface, producing a distinct leached oxide zone containing secondary copper and molybdenum minerals like atacamite, brochantite, and ferrimolybdite alongside altered species. Modern large-scale open-pit operations, incorporated as part of the broader Sierra Gorda mining complex, extract low-grade primary sulfide ores at depth, while earlier historical surface mining and micro-mineral collecting focused on the exceptionally rich array of oxidized secondary minerals retrieved from its upper alteration zones.

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