Mimetite (O-0012)

specimen number:
9273204

location:
Velardena, Durango, Mexico

description:

Very attractive yellow green botryoidal crystallized mimetite across the front of matrix. Slight micro-damage present as seen, still in good condition. This is really fine for the species and locality.

The Velardena mining district, located in the municipality of Cuencame within the state of Durango, Mexico, is a major historic silver-lead-zinc producer. Geologically, the deposit consists of complex polymetallic skarns and hydrothermal veins hosted within Cretaceous limestones that were intruded by Tertiary granitic dikes and stocks. These intrusions triggered intense contact metamorphism and alteration, depositing rich zones of sphalerite, galena, and chalcopyrite alongside silver-bearing sulfosalts. Industrial mining at Velardena began under Spanish colonial rule in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but modern commercial exploitation expanded dramatically in 1888 with the arrival of the railroad and investments by companies like the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO). The district experienced major extraction booms through the early twentieth century until operations were disrupted by the Mexican Revolution. Mining activities experienced various periods of suspension and ownership transitions throughout the mid-to-late 1900s, followed by a major revival in modern times with renewed exploration and underground mining projects focused on zinc, lead, and silver recovery.

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