Erythrite

specimen number:
2282120

location:
Sara Alicia Mine, Alamos, Sonora, Mexico

description:
Purplish red acicular crystallized erythrite throughout matrix. Nice thumbnail for this classic Mexican locality for the species.

The Sara Alicia mine, located near Alamos in Sonora, Mexico, is a historically significant mining operation known for its rare arsenic, cobalt, and nickel mineralization. Geologically, the deposit is a hydrothermal skarn formed by the intrusion of tertiary granitic rocks into cretaceous limestones, which created a complex contact metamorphic zone. Hydrothermal fluids flowing through this zone replaced the native carbonate rocks and deposited a distinct assemblage of minerals, including native bismuth, cobaltite, erythrite, and the rare calcium iron arsenate mineral arseniosiderite. Small-scale mining and exploration at the site began during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, targeting high-grade cobalt and copper ores. Production occurred intermittently, with notable periods of exploration and development work in the 1930s and 1940s, before underground extraction ceased due to localized ore depletion and shifting economic conditions.

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