Covellite

specimen number:
2262372

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

description:
Large grouping affiliated iridescent purple to golden crystallized covellite. Classic material for this locality.

Mining at Butte, Montana, began in the 1860s with placer gold and silver prospecting before transitioning into one of the worlds most productive copper-producing districts, earning the title "The Richest Hill on Earth." Geologically, the area is dominated by the Butte Quartz Monzonite, a large intrusive rock body associated with the Boulder Batholith, which was fractured and filled with complex hydrothermal vein systems rich in copper, zinc, lead, manganese, and silver. Commercial underground mining expanded rapidly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries under corporate giants like the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, before shifting to massive open-pit operations with the creation of the Berkeley Pit in 1955. Large-scale active open-pit copper and molybdenum extraction continues today under the modern Continental Pit operation, while the historic underground workings largely closed by the late 20th century.

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