Calcite (SA-024)

specimen number:
9273125

location:
Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua, Mexico

description:

Classic calcite specimen from this locality, a glassy partly gemmy sharp scalenohedral crystal hosting a second-generation of reddish small calcite crystals. These exhibit several phantom crystals, in great condition.

The Santa Eulalia mining district, situated within the Aquiles Serdan Municipality just east of Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, Mexico, is one of the world's premier silver-lead-zinc underground mining centers, globally famous for producing immense quantities of base metals and spectacular museum-quality specimens of pyrrhotite, hemimorphite, gypsum, and various carbonate minerals. Geologically, this world-class district is divided into the West Camp and East Camp, both comprising massive, low-temperature carbonate replacement deposits (mantos and chimneys) hosted within a thick sequence of Cretaceous-age limestones. Mineralization occurred during the Oligocene epoch, approximately 26 to 30 million years ago, driven by deeply buried calc-alkaline intrusive complexes that channeled metal-rich hydrothermal fluids along major structural fracture networks and grabens, causing extensive metasomatic replacement of the limestone. Historically, the district was discovered by Spanish prospectors in 1591, with large-scale, continuous silver production commencing in 1703 and fueling the economic birth of Chihuahua City. Industrialized underground operations accelerated in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries as major corporate entities, including the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) and later Grupo Mexico, shifted from shallow, oxidized ores to vast, deep-seated primary sulfides.

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