Copper (Cu-044)

specimen number:
9273100

location:
Colonial Copper mine, Cape D'Or, Cumberland Co., Nova Scotia, Canada

description:

Interesting locality example for the species, this a well crystallized grouping of twinned native copper crystals without matrix. In terrific condition all around.

The Colonial copper mine, located near Cape d'Or on the Bay of Fundy coast in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada, was a notable underground mining operation targeted at native copper mineralization. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within the Triassic-age North Mountain Basalt, a thick sequence of tholeiitic flood basalts that erupted during the initial rifting stages of the Atlantic Ocean basin. Hydrothermal fluid circulation through structural faults and vesicular flow-top zones precipitated native copper as fine flakes, heavy sheets, and localized masses within fractures, alongside secondary zeolites, calcite, and quartz gangue. Historically, while Indigenous peoples and early French explorers like Samuel de Champlain observed copper at Cape d'Or in the early seventeenth century, systematic industrial development began around 1899 under the Colonial Copper Company. The company constructed deep shafts, a long drainage adit, a large processing mill, and a marine shipping pier, carrying out active underground development and exploratory milling from 1900 until failing economic grades and high extraction costs forced the permanent shutdown of operations in 1907.

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