Detailed information
Species
Native Copper, Epidote
Dimensions
95 x 83 x 48
mm
Weight
267 g
Locality
Painesdale No. 2 Mine Adams Township, Houghton County Michigan, USA
Condition
No recorded repairs
If this specimen was from Scotland you can guarantee that it would have been named "The Loch Ness Monster", or "Nessy". But it isn't. Instead, it is from the equally illusive occurrence at Painesdale No. 2 mine, Adams Township, Houghton County, Michigan. Specimens from Painesdale No. 2 mine are rarely seen, making this one quite special. It heralds from David Hardman's stunningly comprehensive Michigan copper collection (no. 456). The Native Copper, which is quite bright and metallic, permeates through an unidentified white host rock/mineral with flashes of bright pistachio green Epidote. The Native Copper does not form discrete crystals, but is more hackly with somewhat pitted surfaces, but it is the rarity of its locality and unusually sculptural shape that define this piece.