Siderite

Availability

Sold

Size

7.5 x 7 x 5 cm - Sm Cabinet 

Formula

FeCO₃ (RRUFF)

Locality

Chipman Silver mine, Newbury, Essex Co., Massachusetts, United States

Tagged

carbonate

The specimen looks alot like the specimen from the Roxbury Iron mine in CT in last week's update. But it's not the same locality. This one is from the Chipman Silver mine in Massachusetts. And if you don't know anything about this mine, I don't either. But I do know by looking at Mindat that indeed it was an old silver and the locality does have an assortmant of silver minerals including stephanite and acanthite. And it also has Gold. It appears to be overgrown by the looks of photos on Mindat. If someone out there has some representative specimens from this locality I would be interested in purchasing them. In the article mentioned below, detailed intructions are provided to the mine.

There is a 1970 issue of Rock & Minerals journal written by one John H. Marshall, Jr. Marshall was at the mine 1945, the same year as Arnold Hampson was there. Ol'Arnie probably rode his bike there. Apperantly they mined 4 tons of Galena in 1874 and sunk two shafts on farm land. In 1922 the mine reopened and marketed by a few crooks, which were later arrested and sent to jail. Palache also authored an article in a 1950 issue of R &M as wells as an extensive list on Mindat.