Orpiment

specimen number:
2262227

location:
Manhattan, Nye Co., Nevada, USA

description:
Botryoidal crystallized orpiment covering most of both sides of matrix. Nice old time example for the species and locality. The specimen comes with a previous collection data card is shown at the end of the video. This card shows an acquisition date in 1970.

The Manhattan mining district, situated in the southern Toquima Range of Nye County, Nevada, is a classic western mining camp noted for its distinct, localized occurrences of botryoidal orpiment. Geologically, this deposit represents a low-temperature, Carlin-type epithermal gold system hosted within intensely deformed Cambrian-age sedimentary rocks, primarily the Gold Hill Formation limestones and shales. During late-stage hydrothermal mineralization, arsenic-rich fluids moved through active fault zones and cooling fractures, depositing arsenic sulfides in open solution cavities and vugs. This allowed the arsenic trisulfide to form modest, deep-orange to golden-yellow botryoidal coatings, rounded mamillary aggregates, and dense foliated masses directly associated with realgar, stibnite, and microcrystalline quartz. Historically, gold was first discovered in the district in 1905, sparking a major mining rush that led to the rapid establishment of the town of Manhattan. While the district was primarily exploited for its rich lode and placer gold through extensive underground operations, open-pit quarrying, and large bucket-line dredging from 1906 through the late 1940s, the localized discovery of these botryoidal orpiment pockets occurred during a resurgence of open-pit gold mining at the Manhattan Mine by corporate operators in the late 1970s and 1980s. Although large-scale commercial gold mining ceased in the late 1990s, independent mineralogists and collectors continue to reference these modest Nevada orpiment specimens through 2026 as interesting regional examples of this spherical habit.

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