Chalcopyrite (classic New Mexico locale)

Item Description

Here we have a wonderful old classic piece from the famous Ground Hog Mine in New Mexico, which lies just east of Silver City and southwest of the famous Chino Copper Pit. This mine is locally famous for its excellent Chalcopyrite specimens, but they deserve recognition for being some of the best from any US locality. This piece is a miniature sized specimen hosting sharp, well-formed, tetragonal scalenohedral crystals of brassy metallic Chalcopyrite measuring up to 6 mm, sitting on slight grey colored, prismatic, translucent thin crystals of Quartz on matrix. A bit of accenting white Calcite can be seen on the back of the piece for a nice touch. The piece is in very good condition, as most of the Chalcopyrites are undamaged and look great up close and when the piece is on display in a cabinet. These were never really available in any great quantity, but in today's market they are notably scarce. If you're a fan of sulfides or minerals from New Mexico, or you just like classic locality specimens, this is a good overall example of this attractive material.
This piece comes from the personal collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman, the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. Dave is now retired from mining, but he worked for decades in various mines underground in Colorado, as a miner, mechanic, engineer, shift boss and foreman. His biggest claim to fame is that he was the foreman and the primary person in charge of mining and specimen recovery at the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado in the 1970s alongside his son-in-law, Rich Kosnar. This project what was the FIRST ever operation for specimen recovery at this historic locality. A full-page photograph of Dave can be seen mining underground at the Sweet Home in on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".