Sperrylite

specimen number:
2262321

location:
Vermilion Mine, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

description:
Bright metallic masses on matrix with pyrite. Nice locality example for the species, this comes with several all labels. These are shown at the end of the video.

The Vermilion mine, situated in Denison Township near Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, was a historically significant and mineralogically unique underground operation within the southwest corner of the Sudbury Basin. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within the sublayer of the Sudbury Igneous Complex, a massive Proterozoic-age impact structure where hydrothermal activity concentrated rich magmatic sulfides along contact zones with ancient metasedimentary footwall rocks. The unique ore body was characterized by high-grade concentrations of chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, and pentlandite, notably enriched with rare platinum-group elements, which led to the discovery of sperrylite (platinum arsenide) as a new mineral species at this specific site in 1889. Historically, the outcropping gossan was first discovered and staked in 1885 by prospectors Henry Ranger and the Vermilion Mining Company, which initiated shallow surface quarrying and underground shaft development to extract copper and gold. The mine operated intermittently through the late 1880s and 1890s, and was later acquired by the International Nickel Company (INCO) to target localized pockets of high-grade copper and precious metals. Due to the limited physical dimensions of the ore body and structural complexities, major corporate underground production at the primary shaft was completed by 1918, followed by brief periods of exploratory drilling and lease-holder extraction that ceased entirely before mid-century.

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