Silver

specimen number:
1052783

location:
New Nevada Mine, Batopilas, Chihuahua, Mexico

description:
Rich herringbone twinned crystallized native silver across matrix with minor calcite. Classic material for this Mexican locality.

The New Nevada mine, located within the historic Batopilas silver mining district of Chihuahua, Mexico, is famous for its remarkably high-grade native silver ore bodies. Geologically, the deposit consists of hydrothermal veins hosted within a complex sequence of Mesozoic dioritic and andesitic volcanic rocks that have been fractured and intruded by later Tertiary felsic dikes. Mineralization within the New Nevada vein system occurred during low-temperature hydrothermal stages, depositing spectacular dendritic masses, wires, and plates of pure native silver within a calcite matrix, along with minor quantities of argentite and galena. Discovered in the late nineteenth century during a period of massive consolidation by American investors, the mine was intensively operated by the Batopilas Mining Company under the management of Alexander Shepherd between the 1880s and 1910. Primary operations at the mine came to an abrupt halt around 1911 due to the disruptions of the Mexican Revolution and the flooding of the lower mine levels, with only sporadic, small-scale scavenging and specimen extraction occurring in the decades that followed.

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