Calcite

specimen number:
2062349

location:
Belt Mine, Ontonagon Co., Michigan, USA

description:
A cluster of colorless mostly gemmy calcite crystals with little attached matrix. In very good condition.

The Belt Mine, located in Ontonagon County within the historic copper mining region of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, is a nineteenth-century mining site that targeted native copper deposits. Mining operations developed during the regional copper booms, following exploration of native metal occurrences first worked anciently and later re-discovered by modern prospectors in the 1840s. Geologically, the deposit is situated within the Precambrian rocks of the Keweenawan Rift system. The native copper mineralization occurs primarily within amygdaloidal tops of flood basalt flows, interbedded conglomerates, and fissure veins belonging to the Portage Lake Lava Series, where hydrothermal fluids precipitated copper into available open spaces and fractures.

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