Silver with Cerussite

specimen number:
2273005

location:
Bunker Hill Mine, Shoshone Co., Idaho, USA

description:
A wonderful combination piece for this famous locality. Rich crystallized native silver across the top of matrix associated with white crystals of cerussite. In great condition. Specimens of this quality from this combination at this locality only very rarely seen available on the market today.

The Bunker Hill mine, located near Kellogg in the Coeur d Alene mining district of Shoshone County, Idaho, was one of the largest and most productive underground lead, zinc, and silver mines in United States history. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within the Paleoproterozoic-age Belt Supergroup, specifically the thick quartzite and argillite sequences of the St. Regis and Revett Formations, which were severely fractured and faulted by regional tectonic forces. Hydrothermal fluids migrating through these complex structural corridors precipitated massive, high-grade replacement veins and fault-fillings dominated by galena, sphalerite, and argentiferous tetrahedrite within a gangue of siderite and quartz. Historically, the deposit was discovered in 1885 by Noah Kellogg, leading to the incorporation of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company in 1887. The operation grew into a massive industrial complex, complete with its own on-site smelter and refinery, maintaining nearly continuous underground extraction for nearly a century. Escalating environmental compliance costs, falling metal prices, and union labor disputes ultimately forced the permanent closure of the main mining and smelting operations in 1981, after which the site became a major federal Superfund reclamation project, though exploratory asset evaluations and environmental remediation activities have continued through 2026.

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