Proustite with Acanthite

specimen number:
2273030

location:
McAllister Mine, Three Forks, Slocan, British Columbia, Canada

description:
Micro crystals of both pyrargyrite and proustite across the top of matrix. Neat locality example for the species. The specimen dates to the 1950s or earlier. The largest proustite crystal is almost 0.5 cm in size.

The McAllister mine, situated on London Ridge near Slocan (within the Slocan mining camp) of British Columbia, Canada, is a historic past-producing underground silver operation. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within the Triassic Slocan Group, a sequence of fine-grained clastic sedimentary rocks including quartzites, argillites, and limestones that are intruded by quartz porphyry dikes and sills. The mineralization occurs as high-grade silver-bearing tetrahedrite, galena, and sphalerite concentrated within quartz-filled fissures, with the most productive zones cutting a thick sequence of massive quartzites. Discovered and first staked in 1902, the property saw its first small-scale shipments in 1903 and underwent intermittent development by various operators, including Slocan Silver Mines and Standard Silver-Lead Mining Company. Commercial mining operations peaked between 1926 and 1938, after which activity became highly sporadic under various lessees until formal underground operations completely ceased around 1950.

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