silver (on chalcocite)

A piece of dense, chalcocite-rich sulphide ore, with partings richly mineralised with silvery-white native silver.

This specimen was originally number 4449 in the collection of Austrian industrialist Hans von Karabacek, much of which was acquired for Harvard University by Charles Palache in 1935. The location in the mine is not recorded, but in the early 1930s only prelimary develpment work below 16 Level had occurred. Klein (1938) described thin plates of native silver in chalcocite ore from the bottom of the first oxidation zone between 10 and 14 levels.

chalcocite