We are getting ready for a big move back to Michigan next summer and are continuing to try to get our stock levels down so we don't have large poundage of rock specimens to transport, and this is another offering in an attempt to meet that goal!!
Here
is a really nice group of eighteen (18) individual specimens of high grade native silver ore with silver growing in thin veins and scattered chunky masses in a primarily cream to light pink colored calcite and dolomite matrix vein with safflorite and a good bit of cobaltite running through the matrix. Each piece is different, but there is easily visible native silver on each piece and several of these pieces are pretty killer! This group has a bunch of cobaltite often growing in blooms around the silver along with I think some safflorite in a beautiful cream-pink colored calcite-dolomite matrix (the pink coloration comes from the cobalt included in the calcite-dolomite which is likely erythrite!).
These came from a trade I did several years back with a Canadian collector friend that frequented these old mine dumps over the past decades metal detecting for treasure. These pieces are all quite similar and likely came out a common area in the mine, and they are all rich vein sections of silver ore typical of the Cobalt mining area in Ontario, Canada that have a lot to offer. Each of these is a good silver ore specimen and many could be cut into beautiful cabochons for use in jewelry or polished up and used in artwork if desired, but they make some great native silver and cobalt ore specimens just as they are. These are some of my favorite type of Cobalt silver specimens, I just love the color combination between the silver and cobalt minerals and the white or pink calcite/dolomite matrix!
This group of rich silver ore specimens comes from
the old Hellens-Eplett Mine, Cobalt Area, Bucke Township, Cobalt-Gowganda Region, Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada. These specimens are all thumbnail to large miniature sized pieces and they range in maximum size from 1.5 to 6.4 cm (about 5/8 to 2.5 inches)! Together the 18 specimens in this group weigh in at 14.9 ounces. These are cool native silver ore specimens and worth a good long look for all of you silver enthusiasts out there, and much better in person than the photos depict!
Per Wikipedia: The Cobalt Silver Rush started in 1903 when huge veins of silver were discovered by workers on the T&NO railroad near Mile Post 103. By 1905 the rush was underway and the town of Cobalt sprang up to service the mining efforts. By 1908 the mines around Cobalt produced 9% of the
world's silver, and in 1911 alone produced more than 31 million ounces of silver.
However, the good ore ran out fairly rapidly, and most of the mines were
closed by the 1930s. Several of these mines were reopened for short periods of time during World War II and in the 1950's, and there was a final attempt to mine leftover ore pockets in the 1980's, but all mining activity ceased more than 30 years ago. Over the history of mining in the Cobalt area, more than 460
million ounces of silver came out of these mines.
According to the Mindat web site: This mine was "named after two presidents of the company: A. Leith Hellens and William Eplett. The deposit was discovered in 1983 by Silverside Resources. They drove a
ramp in 1985 to explore several high grade surface diamond drill hole
intersections but the deposit proved to be uneconomical. The mine closed
in 1988 and a last shipment of 2,806 tons of stockpile ore was sent out
for milling from which 65,891 oz. of silver was recovered. Total
production was approx. 140,000 oz. of silver recovered from 7500 tons of
ore. In 1988 the company reported finding a copper-zinc ore body in Keewatin
Volcanics in the mine; however, this never amounted to anything
significant (Northern Miner 1988, Vol. 74, No. 32). "
We are offering this classic locality silver ore group for a SUPER LOW starting bid and NO RESERVE, so lets have some fun! This is a really nice group and each of these specimens have a retail value between $10 and $40+ and if I were to sell them individually I would expect to get somewhere between $300 and $400 for them, so take a good look, this is a stellar specimen group! If you have a question about anything just drop us a quick e-mail. Shipping will be charged at cost.
We are offering this classic locality silver ore group for a SUPER LOW starting bid and NO RESERVE, so lets have some fun! This is a really nice group and each of these specimens have a retail value between $10 and $40+ and if I were to sell them individually I would expect to get somewhere between $300 and $400 for them, so take a good look, this is a stellar specimen group! If you have a question about anything just drop us a quick e-mail. Shipping will be charged at cost.
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AND OUR EBAY STORE!!!
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WE BUY OLD COLLECTIONS FOR CASH:
If you have an old collection you would like to sell, please consider contacting us.
If you have an old collection you would like to sell, please consider contacting us.
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If you are purchasing multiple items, please request a combined invoice from us and wait to pay until we send you a true combined invoice. The amount eBay charges for combined shipping usually significantly over estimates the true shipping cost.
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