Pyrite (SUL-0011)

specimen number:
9273058

location:
Mogilata, Septemvri Mine, Madan, Smolyan, Bulgaria

description:

Bright lustrous crystals of golden pyrite measuring to 0.5 cm in size across the top of matrix. Galena is present as well. In great condition. Choice for the species at this locality.

The Mogilata deposit, located within the Madan ore field of the Central Rhodope Mountains in Smolyan Province, Bulgaria, is a renowned underground lead-zinc locality famed for producing world-class manganocalcite and galena specimens. Geologically, it is a structural and stratigraphically controlled carbonate replacement and vein system hosted within ancient gneiss and amphibolite layers that are interbedded with marble horizons. Mineralization occurred during the Oligocene epoch, roughly 30 million years ago, when ascending hydrothermal fluids dissolved the marble sequences to form extensive lead-zinc sulfide bodies alongside unique manganese-rich skarn minerals like johannsenite and manganilvaite. While the broader Madan district has been an active center for localized primitive smelting since antiquity, modern industrial shaft mining at the Mogilata deposit officially launched in 1953 under the Bulgarian-Soviet joint corporation Gorubso as part of the sprawling Deveti Septemvri (Ninth of September) mine complex. This deep underground operation sustained continuous, large-scale commercial extraction of base metal ores throughout the socialist era and transitioned into the renamed Septemvri mine system after 1989, maintaining active production into the late twentieth century until economic restructurings caused primary large-scale operations at the deposit to gradually wind down.

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