Wulfenite (repaired)

specimen number:
9273013

location:
Erupcion Mine, Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico

description:

A cluster of beautiful lustrous blocky wulfenite crystals measuring to 1.5 cm are in size without matrix. The piece has been repaired as shown in the video. This repair is very difficult to spot. In super condition.

The Erupcion mine (also known as the Ahumada-Erupcion complex), situated in the Los Lamentos Mountains of the Ahumada Municipality within Chihuahua, Mexico, is a historic underground mining operation renowned for producing fine mineral specimens of bright orange-to-red wulfenite crystals. Geologically, this deposit is classified as a classic lead-zinc-silver carbonate replacement system (manto deposit) hosted within Cretaceous-age limestones. Intense supergene oxidation of the primary galena and sphalerite sulfide bodies by circulating groundwater allowed dissolved molybdenum and lead to react, precipitating thick, robust, tabular wulfenite crystals on a highly porous matrix of iron oxides and sand carbonate, often associated with vanadinite and descloizite. Historically, the mineralized outcrops were discovered in 1907, with formal commercial underground production beginning around 1912 under the Erupcion Mining Company. Production expanded dramatically in the 1920s when a specialized railroad line was constructed to haul high-grade lead-silver carbonate ores to smetlers, but the easily accessible primary manto reserves were depleted by the early 1930s, leading to the cessation of large-scale corporate operations in 1932.

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