Silver with Quartz

specimen number:
8911075

location:
Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico

description:
A nest of native silver wires approximately 0.8 x 0.4 cm across set on crystallized quartz. In good condition. The specimen comes with a previous label from the Alton collection.

Situated in Zacatecas, Mexico, Fresnillo is a legendary mining district situated along the eastern flank of the Sierra Madre Occidental, famous for hosting some of the world's richest epithermal vein systems and mantle-hosted sulfide deposits. Formed during Tertiary igneous activity, hydrothermal solutions injected precious and base metals into fractures within Cretaceous marine sediments and volcanic rocks. Prospectors established mining operations at Fresnillo in the mid-sixteenth century following early Spanish discoveries, turning it into one of the most prolific and continuously operated silver mines in human history. Beyond commercial mining, the underground veins have supplied mineral collectors with world-class specimens of native silver, pyrargyrite, acanthite, and brilliant calcite crystal clusters over centuries of extraction.

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