Calcite with Pyrite

specimen number:
2292327

location:
Potosi Mine, Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua, Mexico

description:
Colorless scalenohedral crystals of calcite across the top of matrix with crystallized pyrite. From the early 1980s. In good condition with very minimal micro-cleaving present.

The Potosi Mine, located in the West Camp of the historic Santa Eulalia Mining District in Chihuahua, Mexico, is situated within one of the largest carbonate replacement deposits in the country. Geologically, the deposit formed when high-temperature, metal-rich hydrothermal fluids rose through tectonic faults and reacted with Cretaceous limestone host rocks. This interaction replaced the carbonate rock with massive sulfide orebodies shaped as elongated horizontal sheets, known as mantos, and vertical columns, known as chimneys. Discovered during the Spanish colonial period in the early 1700s, the mine was heavily worked throughout the twentieth century. It served as a major producer of silver, lead, and zinc, while also becoming famous among mineralogists for producing distinctive calcites, rhodochrosite, and complex fluorite crystals.

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