Silver with Calcite

specimen number:
8911163

location:
White Pine mine, Ontonagon Co., Michigan, USA

description:
A cluster of excellent twinned elongated dendritic crystallized native silver, this basically held together by crystallized calcite. In excellent condition all around. Very fine Michigan classic. The specimen comes with a previous label from the Alton collection.

Situated in Ontonagon County within the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the White Pine Mine is famous for its unique sediment-hosted copper and silver deposits. Unlike the native metal masses typical of the surrounding Keweenaw region, White Pine mineralisation occurs primarily as finely disseminated copper sulfides and native silver trapped within the Precambrian sedimentary rocks of the Nonesuch Shale and Copper Harbor Conglomerate. Following early prospecting attempts in the nineteenth century, large-scale industrial underground production began in the 1950s under the Copper Range Company, yielding billions of pounds of metal before operations permanently ceased in the late 1990s. Although underground collecting is no longer possible due to flooding, the mine remains celebrated among mineral collectors for producing exceptional dark sulfide crystals, native silver specimens, and associated secondary minerals.

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