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Article: Butte, Montana: Minerals, mines, and history.
- Article from:
- The Mineralogical Record
- Article date:
- January 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Mineralogical, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For more than 100 years Butte's dozens of mines have been a source of extraordinary specimens of an equally extraordinary number of minerals. A total of 130 mineral species have been recorded from Butte. Specimens of copper sulfides and sulfosalts like bornite, chalcocite, colusite, covellite, digenite, djurleite, and enargite rank among the finest in the world. The best of Butte pyrite compares with the best anywhere. Handsome specimens of barite, quartz, rhodochrosite, silver, and numerous other species have been found, many of them in extraordinary numbers.
Introduction
That was the first time I heard the term "vug hole." The ground in the Butte ...