Chalcopyrite with Quartz

specimen number:
2262041

location:
Butte, Silver Bow Co., Montana, USA

description:
Bright lustrous somewhat iridescent golden crystals of chalcopyrite to 0.4 cm in size across the front of a crystallized quartz matrix. In good condition, nice for this classic mining district and species.

Butte, Montana, often called the Richest Hill on Earth, is one of the most famous mining districts in North America. Geologically, the area is centered on the Butte Quartz Monzonite, part of the Boulder Batholith, which was fractured and mineralized by hydrothermal fluids roughly 60 million years ago. These fluids deposited enormous amounts of copper, zinc, manganese, and silver in a complex network of deep-seated veins and later disseminated deposits. Historically, mining began with a gold placer rush in 1864, but the district transitioned to silver and then to industrial-scale copper mining by the 1880s as electrical demand surged. The Anaconda Copper Mining Company dominated the region for decades, overseeing a massive labyrinth of underground shafts that eventually gave way to the Berkeley Pit open-pit operation in 1955. While major underground mining ceased in the 1970s and the Berkeley Pit closed in 1982, active mining continues today at the Continental Pit, marking over 160 years of nearly continuous extraction.

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