Silver with Skutterudite

specimen number:
2062351

location:
Silver Islet Mine, Ontario, Canada

description:

Crystallized native silver and skutterudite on matrix. This has been etched from enclosing dolomite. Very nice for this old locality last work in the late 1800s. In good condition all around. Identification has been confirmed.

The Silver Islet Mine, located on a tiny rocky islet in Lake Superior near Thunder Bay, Ontario, has a dramatic history that began with its discovery in 1868 and a brief, highly lucrative period of silver extraction in the nineteenth century before water inundation permanently flooded the shafts. Geologically, the deposit is centered on a narrow silver-bearing vein hosted within a Proterozoic diabase sill that intruded older black shales and slates. Hydrothermal fluids rich in silver, native arsenic, and various sulfides exploited fractures within the diabase, creating concentrated pockets of exceptionally rich native silver ore that made the site one of the most famous historical mining ventures in Canada.

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