Vivianite from Blackbird Mine, Idaho, USA

$75.00

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Lustrous deep blue to greenish translucent partial crystals of vivianite across the front of matrix. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.The Blackbird Mine in Lemhi County, Idaho, was discovered in the late nineteenth century, initially attracting prospectors seeking gold and copper before becoming the premier domestic source of critical strategic metals during the twentieth century, particularly experiencing peak production driven by federal demands in the mid-1900s prior to its final closure and subsequent designation as an environmental superfund cleanup site. Geologically, the deposit sits within the central Idaho cobalt belt in a rugged mountainous terrain, hosted primarily in Precambrian metasedimentary strata consisting of folded and faulted siltites and argillites that were heavily altered by regional metamorphism and hydrothermal activity to form localized shear zones containing valuable metal-bearing mineral assemblages.