A great, exceptionally well crystalized copper specimens form one of the older and more obscure Michigan copper mines.  The Pewabic Mine operated from about 1855 until 1884, and was later incorporated into the Quincy Mine.  The piece features numerous very sharp crystals on a matrix of more massive copper, with a great patina that does not appear to have been affected by the usual cleaning with acid.  

A large copper specimen from one of the most difficult to obtain of the various Michigan copper localities. Unlike almost all the other specimens that came from old mines or the waste piles that they left behind, this location was discovered in the early 90's by local collectors scouting land that had been cleared for logging roads.  This place is pretty much at the end of the Keweenaw peninsula, just a couple miles from where it juts out into Lake Superior-- in fact I know of only one other locality (that is not an island) past it-- that would be Keweenaw Point, where they find the yellow datolites.  This locality is notable for producing some of the largest copper crystals found in Michigan, and while these are certainly not that size, it remains a very well crystalized specimen with numerous crystals-- including a nicely isolated one near the top of the specimen.   To give a sense of rarity, there are only 2 other examples from here pictured on MinDat. 

An excellent an unusually sculptural copper specimen, collected sometime between 1870 and 1890, and obtained from the descendant of a miner.

A hand sized specimen of silver, with a vaguely arborescent form, though much thicker and heftier than the usual. There are several crude crystals visible on the piece. It was collected sometime between 1870 and 1890, and obtained from the descendant of a miner. 

A large and very sculptural copper specimen from the site pine mine, displaying well formed crystals throughout it's length.  Although the White Pine Mine produced a lot of specimens, the bulk of them tend to be flattened crystals with a notably two-dimensional appearance-- good, more 3D specimens like this are considerably more hard to come by.  You do have the flattened areas typical of White Pine, though this seems to have had much more space to crystalize, as it is covered with crystals.  This piece even has a drill scar present-- I do not know enough about the various mining implements used to be able to hazard a guess as to when this occurred, though the mine operated intermittently between 1880 and 1974. Regardless of when it was found, it remains a very large and dramatic piece-- it'd even call it a "statement copper" for a shelf, even surrounded by other copper country minerals, with quite a bit of bang for your buck.  I do think this one displays better in person... it's hard to capture a nearly 40 cm specimen in a small image. You can get a sense of what I mean by looking at the closeups.

A very scultural group of copper crystals from Michigan's upper peninsula. There is something very satisfyingly chunky about the individual crystals, yet they still display good faces and are arranged in a pleasantly loose, three-dimensional form.  Can be displayed form multiple angles.  

An old and very rich example of this highly sought after combination-- benitoite crystals with neptunite, from the only locality known to have produced displayable examples (there is a second locality in Japan that produces micromounts).  This piece has numerous crystals of both species-- including one benitoite that is nearly triply terminated (if it isn't, it certainly looks like it is-- see the closeup image.)  Another plus, is that you cannot see the underlying blue schist-- the benitoite is usually etched out of the white natrolite, and on lower quality examples, this process is allowed to continue until the rock matrix is visible.

A great example of azurite from Milpillas, consisting of a group of azurite crystals with beautifully contrasting malachite.  The azurite crystals themselves have top luster, and with minor lighting exhibit the best "electric" blue color.  

A great example of azurite from Milpillas, consisting of a group of azurite crystals on beautifully contrasting malachite.  The azurite crystals themselves have top luster, and with minor lighting exhibit the best "electric" blue color.  The position of the azurite crystals on the very top of the matrix, and their relative distinctness really does set this piece apart from the standard clusters.

A great example of azurite from Milpillas, consisting of a group of azurite crystals with beautifully contrasting malachite.  The azurite crystals themselves have top luster, and with minor lighting exhibit the best "electric" blue color.  This is probably my favorite piece in the update, and the relative distinctness of the crystals (combined with the green backdrop) really does set this piece apart from the standard clusters.

A beautiful copper specimen from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, featuring numerous cubic crystals.  These are considered to be the rarest copper habit from the area, and are among the most sought after.  This is a particularly sizable example for the habit.

A very beautiful example of blue over yellow fluorite, from the famous Southern Illinois Fluorspar district. A second generation of blue fluorite has overgrown the yellow, making for a particularly striking color combination.

While the Milpillas Mine is best known for its spectacular azurite specimens, it has also produced particularly good examples of a number of other species-- native copper, brochantite, volborthite, and cuprite to name a few.  The latest surprise from this mine has been shattuckite.  The last decade has seen a couple good finds of this species, most notably in Namibia and Congo, and now those are joined by these Mexican examples.

A great copper specimen from the Kearsarge Mine, at the far Northern tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  The Kearsarge Mine operated between 1897 and 1931, and again for a few years in the middle of the century; this piece likely dates to the earlier interval.

A large cabinet specimen of blue fluorite with a purple outer later, associated with a calcite crystal clinging to the top of therein crystal. There is some sandy material on the surface as well.

A spectacular and very large fluorite from the Auglaize quarry. This is an older piece, hosting numerous purple and brown crystals. Some of the brown crystals have a thin overgrowth of purple, which gives a slight iridescence.  Pieces of this size are seldom seen!

A great example of azurite from Milpillas, consisting of a group of azurite crystals with interspersed growths of beautifully contrasting malachite.  The azurite crystals themselves have top luster, and with minor lighting exhibit the best "electric" blue color.  

A nice example of native silver from Michigan's upper peninsula  This one is a decently sized formation of massive and roughly crystalline.

A great example of azurite from Milpillas, consisting of a group of azurite crystals with beautifully contrasting malachite.  The azurite crystals themselves have top luster, and with minor lighting exhibit the best "electric" blue color.  There are a couple spots around the edges where the azurite crystals appear to have grown up against another rock, but I see no damage.  This is pieced about 1/2 (or less) of what comparable specimens are being offered for elsewhere. 

A great example of orange calcites on a sphalerite matrix, with minor fluorite. The main cluster and the smaller doubly terminated crystals immediately near it are perfect, only the one way off to the side has any tip issues. I could have trimmed it before posting, but decided to leave it as is.  

A large fluorite from the Auglaize Quarry in Ohio, there are two main fluorite habits that this location is known for-- the zoned purple cubes, and then these interesting combinations of brown fluorite with a later purple generation. This is the latter habit, and a very good representative of that material, being an older piece contains a big filled with crystals. There are also a couple white calcites that give a pleasant accent!

A really, really good copper specimen-- to begin with the crystal is exceptionally sharp, then it is very well isolated-- in fact I think just calling it "isolated" doesn't stress the point enough-- it is surrounded by contrasting white datolite, *and* the exact locality information was preserved-- non of these things are normal when it comes to Michigan copper.  Usually, if a specimen has crystals, they will be semi-rounded, then they are almost always often clustered together, and often without precise locality information.  

A very beautiful matrix specimen of copper in calcite, from the Quincy Mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. These are probably one of the more iconic items from the region, and because of the relative fragility of the calcit,e something that has become much more uncommon than the copper specimens that continue to be collected of the old mine dumps. 

An exceptional example of austinite from a recent find at the Ojuela Mine.  Austinite is a rare calcium zinc bearing arsenate best known from Tsumeb, the Majuba Hill mine in Utah, and the Ojuela Mine.  Tsumeb was best known for the green cuproaustinites, and at the Majuba Hill most specimens contained only semi-crusty crystalline aggregates.

A pair of roughly hemispherical aggregates composed of many small, sparkly rhodochrosite crystals on a sulfide matrix. These Mexican rhodochrosites date to the 1960’s, and are rather hard to find today. This is a particularly aesthetic piece; although the crystals are small, their arrangement on the matrix is quite unique. More often than not, the crystals were just randomly scattered, or found lining vugs and in seams—this one however, actually has some definite spatial composition….

A great example of azurite from Milpillas, consisting of a group of azurite crystals with interspersed growths of beautifully contrasting malachite.  The azurite crystals themselves have great luster, and with minor lighting exhibit areas of the best "electric" blue color.  

A great example of azurite from Milpillas, consisting of a group of azurite crystals with beautifully contrasting malachite.  The azurite crystals themselves have top luster, and with minor lighting exhibit the best "electric" blue color.  

A great example of deeply colored scorodite on the typical limonite matrix, from Ojuela.  Of all the examples in this update, this piece has the best combination of color, size, and lustrousness of the crystals, though as you can see the cluster has some edge contacting.  

A classic example of a sliced and polished variscite nodule, from "the good locality,"  (there are a few others in the area, but the Clay Canyon examples are by far the most sought after.)  Unlike most of these on the market, which have been sliced into ever thinner sections to maximize monetary gain, this one is a reasonably thick portion of a nodule-- I would estimate somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of it.

A copper specimen shaped like a rabbit-- though it has a 3rd ear. I really like this piece, it so clearly looks like something else-- and the crystals are quite sharp as well. 

A rare example of a silver nugget from Michigan, collected sometime between 1870 and 1890, and obtained from the descendant of a miner.  At the time these things would have been fairly common, considering the millions of ounces of silver produced in the Upper Peninsula, though as most were processed, these are quite hard to find today. 

Simply put, this is a gigantic copper crystal. When they reach this size, they are usually a hell of a lot cruder and you have to somewhat imagine where the outline is-- not the case with this one.  While the surface is on the rough side, you can clearly see the faces, and the typical rill-ice surface features. There are also a number of smaller crystals perched near the bottom. 

A pretty example of purple fluorite cubes with good phantoms, on a cluster of sphalerite crystals.  The luster and color of this one are particularly good, and the phantoms add a nice touch that you don't see on most Elmwood specimens. Edge cleaves present, displays as shown. 

A beautiful and exceptionally rich silver specimen from the classic Batopilas locality, known for producing some of the finest mexican silver crystals. This example is particularly rich and well crystallized; with the largest crystal measuring approximately 3 cm. It comes with handwritten and typed Robert Nowakowski labels, indicating that he paid $250 for this specimen in 1972. That would be around $1200 in today"s dollars, and it was purchased at a time when these things were more plentiful. This piece also has a couple bits of matrix-- as with all Batopilas silvers, the silver is etched out of silver-bearing calcite veins. In this case, some of the rock attached to the calcite is still present, again, very unusual for these silvers. Better looking in person... the pictures make the crystals look somewhat jumbled.

A very large galena specimen from the Sweetwater Mine, this thing weighs around 15 lbs. The central crystals are sharp and clean, though there is the damage around the edges you would expect from a piece of this size.

A great example of azurite from Milpillas, consisting of a group of azurite crystals with interspersed growths of beautifully contrasting malachite.  The azurite crystals themselves have top luster, and with minor lighting exhibit the best "electric" blue color.  

An unusually large hoppered pyromorphite crystal for this locality, from finds made in the 1980's. No damage.

A beautiful example of "sandwich wulfenite" on matrix, from a find made in July 2020.  The main find of this material occurred in 2017, but a miner recently stumbled upon another small pocket of this very aesthetic wulfenite habit. 

A great example of azurite from Milpillas, consisting of a group of azurite crystals with interspersed growths of beautifully contrasting malachite.  The azurite crystals themselves have top luster, and with minor lighting exhibit areas of the best "electric" blue color.  

A beautiful example of gold on a bit of matrix, one side is mostly smooth, the other shows more crystals.

A large cabinet example of orange calcite, from the Pugh Quarry in northwestern Ohio.  It's rather amazing that something this big can be so clean of damage!  Calcites from this location often have this distinctive, more saturated orange color. 

A nice example of chrysocolla, malachite and quartz with a polished face, from a classic copper mining locality int he American Southwest. 

An unusually large (at least by the standards of what I'm used to seeing) datolite nodule from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. 

When it comes to Michigan copper, I am quite picky.  There is a nearly endless supply of twisted chunks and bits-- occasionally you will get a crude crystal that must be half-way imagined, or a crystal random face. But I like the sharp ones-- the specimens that leave no doubt that what you are looking at is in fact a copper crystal. This one fits the requirement, with a cluster of elongated crystals rising out of a matrix of more copper crystals. The chocolaty patina is particularly good one this one. 

A large and exceptionally rich plate of greenish cuprian austinite-- the color seems a bit more saturated toward the center of the specimen, as the "cuprian" bit seems to increase.  By the standards of austinite from anywhere, this piece is very, very rich.

You might see this and think, "is he crazy?" but no, I am not. This is an exceedingly rare fluorite specimen from the Pugh Quarry, and a particularly rich and sizable one, at that.  While never common there, this piece was collected decades ago. Today, you pretty much only see the orange calcite from this locality, once in a while you may encounter a barite or a celestite, but these are very very hard to find!

A larger sized cabinet specimen with numerous scorodite crystals scattered around.  The surfaces are a bit more etched on these crystals, but the piece is exactly as shown.   

A beautiful example of "sandwich wulfenite" on matrix, from a find made in July 2020.  The main find of this material occurred in 2017, but a miner recently stumbled upon another small pocket of this very aesthetic wulfenite habit. 

A beautiful example of "sandwich wulfenite" on matrix, from a find made in July 2020.  The main find of this material occurred in 2017, but a miner recently stumbled upon another small pocket of this very aesthetic wulfenite habit. 

Zoned yellow, purple, and blue fluorite on a sphalerite matrix. This fluorite is etched on all sides. This is among the most sought after of color combinations from this area. 

An excellent Mexican pyrrhotite, truly a cut above the usual.  This one has a great luster, is entirely damage free, and displays the elongated form characteristic of Mexican pyrrhotites.  While piece likely dates to the 1970's or early 80's, it has an old collection label stating that it was purchased at the 1988 Denver Show.  Today most of the pyrrhotite on the market comes from Dal'Negorsk, Russia-- these Mexican pieces came out 30-40 years ago.

A stunningly beautiful example of creedite on saturated green/purple fluorite. Creedite from Mexico is not rare, in fact it is a staple of many wholesalers. Combinations like this however, are few and far between.  In fact, in all the time I have been doing this, this is only the 3rd such example I have had, and 4th I have seen (meaning, a piece with this sort of proportion.) Usually, the creedite is just a single matrixless ball. If you are lucky, there will be small bits of fluorite clinging to that cluster that provide some color contrast-- but this balance and proportion between the two species is truly rare. 

This is one of my favorite pieces in the update-- a highly unusual combination of a MATRIX datolite with copper. Michigan's Upper Peninsula is primarily known for 3 species: copper, silver, and datolite.  The first two frequently occur together, but apart from tiny metal inclusions, datolite is almost always found alone, as loose nodules. 

A copper specimen from one of the most difficult to obtain of the various Michigan copper localities. Unlike almost all the other specimens that came from old mines or the waste piles that they left behind, this location was discovered in the early 90's by local collectors scouting land that had been cleared for logging roads.  This place is pretty much at the end of the Keweenaw peninsula, just a couple miles from where it juts out into Lake Superior-- in fact I know of only one other locality (that is not an island) past it-- that would be Keweenaw Point, where they find the yellow datolites.  This locality is notable for producing some of the largest copper crystals found in Michigan, and while these are certainly not that size, it remains a very well crystalized specimen with crystals that reach 5 cm in length.  To give a sense of rarity, there are only 2 other examples from here pictured on MinDat. 

A beautiful example of "sandwich wulfenite" on matrix, from a find made in July 2020.  The main find of this material occurred in 2017, but a miner recently stumbled upon another small pocket of this very aesthetic wulfenite habit. 

A great example of this very distinctive copper habit from the the Keweenaw Peninsula. These clusters of dentritic “herringbone” crystals are a hallmark of the Champion Mine (the one in Houghton Co., not the one in neighboring Marquette Co.)— it is easy to mix up the localities of a lot of Michigan coppers, but not these! This mine operated between 1899 and 1967, with the bulk of the work done before 1945.

Although best known for its fluorite, southern Illinois also produced a number of fine carbonates-- barite, witherite, strontianite, etc. Of those benstonite was amongst the rarest, and the examples from the area are considered to be the world's best.

This example consists of a cluster of calcite, richly covered with an epitaxial growths of benstonite-- it's the white scaly stuff all over the piece. 

Benstonite was always a rare mineral in the Cave-in-Rock district, and was only really found in the older days of mining-- the few pieces I have seen were found around the 1950's-60's; the species was described in 1961.  As a testament to the rarity of the species, there are only 15 examples pictured on Mindat.

REPAIRED

How often do you see Bisbee cuprite crystals of this size for sale?  Although in more recent years crystals such as this one have come from Kazakhstan, Congo and Tsumeb, classic pieces like this one remain exceedingly rare.

As far as I can tell, the crystal is intact or nearly intact, the main crystal actually appears to be perched on another that is heavily etched, and the etching makes it difficult to tell what is a natural face and what is a chip, but either way that is the bottom of the crystal, so it doesn"t really matter... for all intents and purposes this specimen a near floater.

When viewed under normal lighting, it appears to have the typical metallic reddish color, but when backlit (or even held up to the sun) this piece turns blood red (forgive the blurry last image.. the point is just to show the backlit color)

THERE IS A REPAIR, basically a chip that randomly fell off and was reattached.  This is hardly visible, and the price more than takes this into account.

This is a great cuprite from a classic American locality, the sort of thing that rarely turns up, and that has not been mined for decades. 

Simply put, this is an exceptional American sulfur specimen.  

While the Milpillas Mine is best known for its spectacular azurite specimens, it has also produced particularly good examples of a number of other species-- native copper, brochantite, volborthite, and cuprite to name a few.  The latest surprise from this mine has been shattuckite.  The last decade has seen a couple good finds of this species, most notably in Namibia and Congo, and now those are joined by these Mexican examples.