Calcite

specimen number:
9273208

location:
Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua, Mexico

description:
A large attractive grouping of lustrous calcite crystals. In great condition all around.

The Santa Eulalia mining district, located in Aquiles Serdan Municipality, Chihuahua, Mexico, is a world-class lead, zinc, and silver carbonate replacement deposit famous for producing exceptional crystals of pyrrhotite, rhodochrosite, fluorite, and hemimorphite. Geologically, the district is divided into the West Camp and East Camp, both hosted within thick sequences of Cretaceous limestone that were deeply intruded by Tertiary felsic dikes and sills. High-temperature, metal-rich hydrothermal fluids traveled along fault zones, dissolving the limestone and depositing massive sulfide mantos, chimneys, and skarn bodies, while later low-temperature fluids formed mineral-lined oxidation zones near the surface. Commercial silver mining began at the site in 1703 following its discovery by Spanish prospectors, driving the founding and development of the nearby city of Chihuahua. Large-scale corporate operations, particularly under companies like ASARCO and Grupo Mexico, modernized the district in the twentieth century, and while primary extraction has fluctuated due to economic shifts and water-management challenges, underground mining and active specimen recovery continue into the twenty-first century.

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