Hematite set

specimen number:
2062229

location:
Cary Mine, Iron Co., Wisconsin, USA

description:
A set of seven lustrous botryoidal hematite specimens from this old locality. The size provided is the size of the box that these are enclosed within.

The Cary mine, situated just west of Hurley in Iron County, Wisconsin, was a major underground iron extraction operation that served as a cornerstone producer on the eastern end of the historic Gogebic Iron Range. Geologically, the deposit is a Paleoproterozoic sedimentary iron-formation localized within the steeply dipping cherty strata of the Ironwood Iron-Formation, which slopes northward at an angle of roughly 60 degrees. The high-grade soft hematite and goethite ore bodies were formed through extensive secondary supergene enrichment, where circulating meteoric waters moved along structural channels created by the intersection of impervious Keweenawan-age diabase dikes and sedimentary bedding, leaching out silica and concentrating the iron oxides. Historically, exploration at the site began in the mid-1880s, with formal underground production initiated in 1886 by the Northern Chief Mining Company before the property was leased to Pickands Mather and Company, which managed the site through most of its operational life. The mine was developed via a series of deep vertical and inclined shafts, eventually reaching depths of over 3300 feet to extract high-grade merchantable ore, and it remained a steady industrial producer for nearly eight decades until changing steelmaking technology and the high cost of deep underground operations led to its permanent closure in 1964.

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