Fluorapatite with Siderite

specimen number:
2062232

location:
Champion Mine, Marquette Co., Michigan, USA

description:
Prismatic crystals of fluorapatite to 1.0 cm in size on matrix with siderite. Good locality example for the species, collected in October, 1956.

The Champion mine, situated in the city of Champion within Marquette County, Michigan, was a major underground iron mining operation renowned for producing exceptionally high-grade hard specular hematite and magnetite ores on the western end of the historic Marquette Iron Range. Geologically, the deposit is a Paleoproterozoic banded iron-formation localized within the Negaunee Iron-Formation, which stands nearly vertical in this district and is surrounded by metamorphic schists and greenstone dikes. The ore bodies were formed through intense structural deformation and regional metamorphism that recrystallized the primary iron oxides into dense, glittering specularite and massive magnetite, with late-stage hydrothermal fluids filling open fractures with coarse crystals of tourmaline, quartz, and manganiferous garnets. Historically, the iron deposit was discovered in 1867 by explorer and geologist Alfred Kidder, with formal production initiated the same year by the Champion Iron Company, which systematically developed a series of seven deep, inclined shafts along the strike of the ore body. The mine operated heavily through the late nineteenth century, providing vital hard ore to midwestern blast furnaces, before being acquired by the Oliver Iron Mining Company in 1901 and later transitioning into intermittent operation until its permanent closure in 1912 due to the depletion of the main high-grade underground lenses.

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