Covellite

specimen number:
2322011

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

description:
Rich massive and crystalline covellite with little matrix.

The Butte mining district in southwestern Montana, historically known as the Richest Hill on Earth, began as a gold and silver placer camp in the mid-nineteenth century before transitioning into a massive underground and later open-pit copper mining powerhouse. Geologically, the district is centered within the Late Cretaceous Boulder Batholith, an extensive mass of granitic rock that was later fractured and intruded by multiple pulses of hydrothermal fluids. These events created a vast and complex network of mineralized veins carrying copper, zinc, silver, lead, and manganese. The extensive underground workings and deep veins of Butte have yielded world-class mineral specimens, including striking crystals of enargite, chalcocite, covellite, and rhodochrosite.

Questions about this specimen?
Send an email or call us: 314-341-1811.