Wulfenite

specimen number:
9273009

location:
Red Cloud Mine, La Paz Co., Arizona, USA

description:
Classic specimen from Arizona beautiful orange red partially gemmy and lustrous tabular crystals of wulfenite to 1.6 cm on edge across the top of matrix. This is in really good condition.

The Red Cloud mine, situated in the Silver district of the Trigo Mountains in La Paz County near Yuma, Arizona, United States, is a historic underground mining operation universally renowned for producing world-class specimens of bright orange-to-red wulfenite crystals. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within a mid-Tertiary fault zone where volcanic rocks and Mesozoic schists are cut by silver-bearing lead-zinc veins. Supergene weathering and intense oxidation of primary galena ore bodies allowed molybdenum-rich solutions to react with lead, precipitating exceptionally sharp, tabular wulfenite crystals on a matrix of iron oxides and quartz, often associated with mimetite and cerussite. Historically, the claim was first located around 1878, and formal commercial underground extraction of silver and lead ores occurred intermittently between 1880 and 1912, after which primary industrial ore reserves were largely exhausted. Following decades of inactivity, the property was repeatedly re-entered and mined strictly for mineral specimens by various private operators during notable campaigns in the 1970s, 1990s, and early 2000s, which involved both underground tunneling and extensive open-cut surface excavation.

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