Barite

specimen number:
2063057

location:
Black Cloud Mine, Leadville, Colorado, USA

description:
Choice thumbnail specimen with platy lustrous grouping of translucent deep amber colored tabular barite crystals without matrix. In great condition all around.

The Black Cloud Mine in Leadville, Colorado, is situated within the historic Colorado Mineral Belt, featuring replacement ore bodies hosted primarily in Paleozoic carbonate rock formations such as the Leadville Limestone. Magmatic hydrothermal activity deposited rich sulfide mineralization characterized by high concentrations of base metals, famously producing distinctive banded material known as zebra ore. Mining operations at the site began extensively in the modern era when the American Smelting and Refining Company opened the underground mine in 1971, marking it as the final major producing operation in the historic district before it ultimately closed in January 1999.

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