Chalcopyrite with Calcite

specimen number:
1052279

location:
Dillenburg, Lahn-Dill-Kreis, Hesse, Germany

description:
Beautiful colorful crystallized chalcopyrite across the top of matrix with crystallized white calcite. Some damage present as seen. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video. The specimen dates to the very early 20th century if not earlier. Mining around Dillenburg in the Westerwald region of Germany has very old roots, centered on iron and other ores in the Dill and Schelderwald mining district. Iron ore and copper were worked there from at least medieval times, with many pits and small mines recorded by the 1500s. In the 1800s and early 1900s larger operations like Grube Kinigszug and Grube Ypsilanta produced iron ore, but competition from foreign ores and economic pressures led to declines. The last of the traditional iron mines, such as Grube Falkenstein near Oberscheld, closed in the 1970s, ending over two thousand years of mining in the region.

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