Copper Nugget (RARE locality specimen)

Item Description

An incredibly hard to find specimen of Copper, in the form of a rounded nugget from the little-known Dan Creek Mine in Alaska. The piece has a distinctive green hue on the surface due to oxidation, so you might not think it's Copper at first, but when you pick it up, you can feel the weight (it's nearly 50 grams). Looking closely, you can see some patches of darkly colored Copper on the surface as well, so it hasn't completely altered on the surface, but I love the coloring, as it gives the piece a truly antique appearance. If you collect native elements or minerals of Alaska, this is a cool locality specimen that is virtually unseen on the market today. The specimen was mined in 1976.
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".