Chalcopyrite with Quartz

specimen number:
2312103

location:
Shaft 366, Alberoda, Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony, Germany

description:
Lustrous golden large crystals of chalcopyrite to 1.3 cm in size across the top of a crystallized quartz matrix. In great condition.

Shaft 366, situated in the Alberoda section of the massive Schlema-Alberoda mining district in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony, Germany, was an integral component of the region's extensive post-World War II uranium extraction operations managed by SDAG Wismut. Geologically, the area is part of the western Erzgebirge, where complex metamorphic host rocks are cut by extensive hydrothermal vein systems associated with Variscan granitic magmatism. While the shaft was primarily driven for large-scale uranium production during the mid-to-late twentieth century, the complex multi-stage hydrothermal veins also crosscut older polymetallic ore structures. These veins produced fine specimens of silver-bearing sulfosalts, such as pyrargyrite and stephanite, alongside carbonate and sulfide minerals like siderite and chalcopyrite.

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