Wulfenite with Mimetite (WUL-0005)

specimen number:
9273139

location:
San Francisco Mine, Cucurpe, Sonora, Mexico

description:
Gemmy thin platy crystals of wulfenite to 2.2 cm on edge across matrix with small orange micro crystals of mimetite. Classic material for this Mexican locality. This one is in very good condition compared to most. Just slight micro-damage present, all of the prominent crystals are sharp and perfect.

The San Francisco mine located near Cerro Prieto in the Cucurpe Municipality of Sonora, Mexico, is a historic underground operation universally famous for producing world-class mineral specimens rather than large-scale industrial ore. Geologically, the deposit is a highly oxidized, polymetallic veins system hosted within Cretaceous sedimentary rocks, including limestones and shales, that were intruded and fractured by Tertiary igneous complexes. Supergene weathering and deep oxidation of primary lead and zinc sulfides transformed the upper zones of the vein networks into a spectacular suite of secondary minerals, famously precipitating vibrant orange wulfenite crystals on matrices of yellow-green botryoidal mimetite within open vugs and solution cavities. Small-scale underground mining at the site began during the late nineteenth century, with sporadic operations continuing through the mid-twentieth century using small shafts and hand-dug adits to extract localized lead and silver ore. While all formal commercial mining ceased by the 1970s, the property has been intermittently accessed up through recent decades by mineral collectors and specialized specimen miners specifically to recover its museum-quality crystal clusters.

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