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Calumet & Hecla #21 Mine
Laurium, Houghton Co., Michigan
    Calumet & Hecla #21 Mine was the second mine known to have the agates with copper inclusions and it was mined on a Kearsage Lobe. There was a story about a local dealer hiring the football players to trench the mine dumps in search for the agates and the trenches are still evident despite so much diggings.
    I had done my share of digging and it's tricky to find any virgin areas and it can be annoying if I dig a big hole only to find some recent trash discarded down there. (LitterBugs!) >_<  I found an virgin area and dug there twice (once a year) and found many small agate nodules. There were larger agates, but they readily crumbled away, likely damaged when the miners used dynamites to blast loose the hard basalt rocks in search of higher-grade copper sources.
    The agates are generally pale pink to orange, often with contrasting bands and "eye" structures. Chlorite and copper are present in some agates and one agate was found with a bit of silver in it. Few large ones had been found from that mine.

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All agates are found by myself (one time a year in August)

agate
agate agate
Typical sizes
Agates in basalt matrix
From one rock
agate agate agate
With chlorite inclusions
Eyes
Copper inclusions
agate agate agate
Chorite inclusions
Complex structure
Has some copper and a bit of silver in it
agate agate agate
Large agate with copper inclusions.
damaged by blasting.

Three agates in one.

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