Pyrite

specimen number:
2102358

location:
ZCA West Pierrepont Mine, St. Lawrence Co., New York, USA

description:
Good example for the species for this locality, bright lustrous golden crystals of pyrite to 1.5 cm are in size throughout matrix. Collected in 2000.

The ZCA Pierrepont mine is a high-grade underground zinc operation located in St. Lawrence County, New York, within the prolific Balmat-Edwards-Pierrepont zinc district. Geologically, the deposit is a world-class sedimentary exhalative (Sedex) or stratabound replacement style system hosted within highly deformed, Mesoproterozoic-aged siliceous dolomitic marbles of the Upper Marble Formation, which underwent upper amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism during the Grenvillian Orogeny roughly 1.1 billion years ago. The orebody consists of exceptionally rich, coarse-grained massive sphalerite mixed with minor pyrite and galena, notable for boasting an average head grade of over sixteen percent zinc. Exploratory drilling by the St. Joe Minerals Corporation first outlined this specific high-grade deposit in 1979, and formal underground shaft development commenced shortly thereafter. Commercial mining operations officially launched in 1982 and ran nearly continuously under the Zinc Corporation of America (ZCA) from 1987 until changing market conditions and economic consolidation led to the cessation of primary extraction at the Pierrepont shaft in 2001, though the property remains integrated into the broader regional Empire State Mines complex.

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