Sphalerite

specimen number:
2062397

location:
"OH Vein", Commodore Mine, Creede, Colorado, USA

description:
Lustrous twinned slightly translucent crystals of sphalerite measuring to 2.0 cm in size across the top of matrix. The prominent crystals are in good condition, there is some damage present along one edge of the piece as shown in the video. Still very nice for this famous old locality.

The OH Vein is a prominent hanging-wall fracture zone associated with the larger Amethyst vein system at the Commodore Mine in Creede, Colorado, which was initially discovered and opened in 1891 and finally ceased operations in 1976. Geologically, the deposit sits within Oligocene rhyolitic host rocks inside the Creede graben and formed as a low- to intermediate-sulfidation epithermal system driven by volcanic and hydrothermal activity. The ore in the OH Vein consists largely of quartz, chlorite, and hematite gangue heavily mineralized with disseminated base-metal sulfides such as sphalerite, galena, pyrite, and chalcopyrite, alongside valuable silver-bearing minerals.

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