Enargite

specimen number:
2102451

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

description:

Very choice specimen showing lustrous prismatic metallic crystals of enargite to 1.5 cm in length across the top of matrix. Minor pyrite present. In good condition with minimal micro-damage present.

The Butte mining district, located in Silver Bow County, Montana, is one of the most prolific copper, zinc, and silver deposits in history, famously known as the Richest Hill on Earth. Geologically, the deposit is centered on the late Cretaceous-aged Boulder Batholith, specifically the Butte Quartz Monzonite, which was extensively fractured and mineralized by complex networks of deep-seated porphyry copper systems and younger, high-grade hydrothermal vein systems. These massive vein structures deposited immense quantities of chalcocite, bornite, enargite, and sphalerite, alongside well-crystallized mineral specimens like quartz and rhodochrosite. Placer gold mining began in 1864, quickly transitioning to underground silver mining in the 1870s, and then to large-scale copper production by the 1880s under corporate giants like the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Underground operations utilized thousands of miles of tunnels until 1955, when production shifted to the massive Berkeley Pit open-pit copper operation, which ceased active mining in 1982, though resource extraction continues nearby at the Continental Pit open-pit mine into the twenty-first century.

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