Smithsonite

specimen number:
2242045

location:
Kelly Mine, Socorro Co., New Mexico, USA

description:
Classic thick botryoidal bluish green chatoyant crystallized smithsonite across the top of matrix. This is in very good condition.

The Kelly Mine, located in the Magdalena District of Socorro County, New Mexico, is a world-renowned mineral locality situated within the northern end of the Magdalena Mountains. Geologically, the deposit is a hydrothermal replacement system where metal-bearing fluids reacted with the Mississippian Kelly Limestone, creating massive ore bodies along faults and contact zones. The mine is most famous for its stunning "Kelly blue" smithsonite, a zinc carbonate mineral that occurs as thick, translucent, botryoidal crusts with a distinctive sky-blue to blue-green hue caused by copper impurities. Historically, mining and quarrying in the area began in the late 1860s following the discovery of lead ores by J.S. Hutchason, with the town of Kelly quickly becoming a major industrial hub. The Kelly Mine itself saw its most significant period of zinc production between 1904 and 1928, primarily under the management of the Empire Zinc Company, which utilized the iconic Passaic headframe that still stands today. Commercial underground mining for industrial ore largely ceased by the mid-20th century.

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