Calcite with Cuprite inclusions

specimen number:
1605135

location:
New Cornelia Mine, Pima Co., Arizona, USA

description:
Small but very choice and attractive bright red terminated loose crystal of calcite. The red color is due to inclusions of cuprite. In very good condition.

The New Cornelia Mine, situated near Ajo in Pima County, Arizona, has a rich history originating with small-scale Spanish and Mexican prospecting around 1750. Modern American claims were established in 1854, but large-scale industrial production began in 1917 after the development of a railroad and breakthrough leaching processes. It operated as Arizona's first major open-pit copper mine until operations were suspended and the mine permanently closed in 1984 due to low metal prices and labor strikes. Geologically, the deposit is a classic porphyry copper system hosted within the apex of the Paleocene Chico-Shunie Quartz Monzonite batholith and associated volcanic sequences. Mineralization features an upper oxidized zone containing copper carbonates like malachite and azurite (along with rare type-locality minerals such as ajoite and papagoite) transitioning at depth into primary disseminated copper sulfides such as chalcopyrite and bornite.

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