Sphalerite

specimen number:
8911196

location:
Dundas Quarry, West Flamborough, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

description:
Very fine thumbnail for the species and locality, a highly translucent orange red crystal grouping of sphalerite with very little matrix attached on the backside. In excellent condition. The specimen comes with a previous label from the Alton collection.

The Dundas Quarry, located near Hamilton in West Flamborough, Ontario, cuts through Silurian-age carbonate rocks of the Lockport Formation, which were deposited in a warm, shallow epicontinental sea over 400 million years ago. Dolostone beds within the quarry host abundant cavities, fractures, and vugs lined with secondary minerals that precipitated from circulating hydrothermal fluids. Commercial quarrying operations began in the mid-twentieth century to extract crushed stone and high-purity flux ribbon for regional construction and steel manufacturing. Over decades of excavation, the site earned international fame among mineral collectors for producing magnificent crystals of lustrous golden celestine, brilliant purple fluorite, strontianite, calcite, and marcasite. Although active industrial mining operations restrict public access today, historical specimens from Dundas remain prized centerpieces in mineral collections worldwide.

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