Hematite

specimen number:
2062221

location:
Cornell Mine, Dickinson Co., Michigan, USA

description:
Sprays of crystalline micaceous hematite embedded up on a hematite matrix. Nice locality example for the species.

The Cornell mine, situated near Lake Antoine just north of the city of Iron Mountain within Dickinson County, Michigan, United States, is a historic, lesser-known open-pit iron operation on the legendary Menominee Iron Range. Geologically, this localized deposit is hosted within the Paleoproterozoic-age Vulcan Iron Formation, where complex regional folding concentrated rich layers of high-grade, direct-shipping specular hematite and dark magnetite ore interbedded with cherty band structures. Historically, the property was initially developed and brought into regular commercial production around 1880 by the Cornell Iron Company under the guidance of superintendent John R. Wood and company president A.B. Cornell. The earliest phase of extraction focused on a modest open pit that measured approximately 300 feet long, 60 feet wide, and reached an average depth of roughly 60 feet from the surface, though operations were temporarily suspended when the company shifted its equipment and focus to open the nearby Calumet mine on the Felch Mountain Range. Following a period of relative dormancy, a new mining company resumed active development at the site under superintendent Mr. Friedrich around 1885, expanding the northeast corner of the historic workings to extract remaining ore reserves. Regular corporate operations permanently ceased in the late 1880s due to the localized nature of the ore body and broader corporate consolidations.

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