Chalcopyrite

specimen number:
2102345

location:
Sweetwater Mine, Reynolds Co., Missouri, USA

description:
Beautiful lustrous golden sharp crystals of chalcopyrite to 0.6 cm in size across the top of matrix. Minor galena and dolomite present. In excellent condition.

The Sweetwater mine, located near the community of Ellington within Reynolds County, Missouri, United States, is a major underground lead-zinc-copper operation situated on the world-famous Viburnum Trend of the Southeast Missouri Lead District. Geologically, this immense Mississippi Valley-type MVT deposit is hosted within the Cambrian-age Bonneterre Formation, where complex regional dolostone reef structures acted as ideal traps for deep, metal-bearing hydrothermal fluids. These warm, saline brines migrated through porous sedimentary layers, precipitating rich, stratabound sulfide minerals that include massive galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, and marcasite, often accompanied by spectacular, large crystals of golden calcite and iridescent chalcopyrite coatings. Historically, following intensive exploratory drilling that mapped out the hidden southern extension of the ore trend, the Ozark Lead Company officially brought the facility into regular commercial production in 1974. The operation changed corporate hands over the decades, passing to ASARCO in 1986 and eventually being acquired in 1998 by the Doe Run Company, which continues to actively extract high-grade ore via an extensive underground room-and-pillar network.

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