Very Rare Pyrite, Chalcopyrite, Garnet, Epidote and Calcite piece from Mina Vieja De Payande 9

Description

Very rare Pyrite, Chalcopyrite, Garnet, Epidote and Calcite specimen from the Mina Vieja De Payande Mine which is near Ibague, in the Tolima Province, Colombia. It is located about 120km Southwest of Bogota. The site was first discovered in 1550. The Mina Vieja De Payande Mine is closed, as of last reports in 1975, with no known plans to re-open. Mine operations consist of underground workings.

There is one known shaft. The mining method is overhand. Overhand cut and fill mining involves excavating a horizontal slice of an orebody, then filling the void with a backfill material – typically mine waste or rejects from the processing plant . After backfilling, another slide is taken on top of the previous one; with the process proceeding until the orebody extraction is complete.

Mine capacity in 1975 was 5 metric tons of ore per day with a production unit cost of $10 a metric ton of ore. As of 1978 there was one documented tabular shaped ore body extending 120 meters (393 feet) long and 30 meters (98 feet) wide.

Minerals or other materials present in the mine include Calcite, Chalcopyrite, Epidote, Garnet and Pyrite. The wallrock is carbonate silicate with pyritization (The hydrothermal process whereby a rock is transformed into a pyrite)…and bleaching (color change). The wallrock Alteration is recorded as intense.

This is an excellent specimen from this long closed locale. It was collected during the 1940’s during a geological study by S.R. Steinhauser (a geologist who in later years worked for the Atomic Energy Commission).

This specimen weighs 25.2 oz or 1.58 lb (715g) and measures 4.4 x 3.3 x 1.4 inches (11.3 x 8.4 x 3.6 cm)

https://thediggings.com/mines/usgs10279938 Information hosted on The Diggings™ is based on publicly available data through the Bureau of Land Management.