.	Dwarves' Earth Treasures Museum: Agates of Copper Mines from Copper Mines of Michigan	.

        Well, I really don't like to call those agates "Lake Superior Agates" because they are, in many ways, too different from Lake Superior Agates found along the beaches of Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. Since they came directly from the copper mines themselves, I would rather call them the Agates of Copper Mines. The agates are generally small with white to pink colors and they seem to be found exclusively at the mine dumps mined from the Kearsage Lobe. The examples of the copper mines along the Kearsage lobe are Laurium, LaSalle, Centennial, Kearsage, Mohawk, Wolverine and Ojibway. The Wolverine #2 mine seem to have produced best agates of that type so far.
    What is so unusual about the Wolverine #2 Mine is that it is the only place in the world known to produce the agates containing native copper inclusions that can be seen wtihout any use of microscopes and some even contain interlaying of agate, prehnite, calcite, chloride and epidote. No one are sure how the copper got in the agates. Some said said that the soft parts of agates rotted away and the copper filled in the gaps, and others said that they were formed in succession fashion.  I have seen how copper and calcite competed against each other as they grow in the same time, and it's possible that the agate and copper may have done the same as they grow a layer by layer at the same time. Prehnite and chloride inclusions in the agates also seem to support this idea. It is not easy to find good ones with obvious copper inclusions and one would cut/grind many agate nodules only to find few agates containing copper inclusions. Evem silver inclusions have been noted in some agates.
Great example of banded copper & agate.
Wolverine #2, August 2009

Rare agate with visible copper inclusions Wolverine #2 Mine August 2005	Typical pink agate Ojibway Mine,  Keweenaw Co., Michigan	LaSalle Mine, August 2005
With copper inclusions Wolverine #2 Mine,  August 2006	White & Pink agate Wolverine #2 Mine,  August 2008	Ojibway Mine, August 2006
With copper inclusions Wolverine #2, August 2009	With copper & silver inclusions Wolverine #2, August 2009	Ojibway Mine, August 2009
With copper inclusions Wolverine #2, August 2009	With copper inclusions Wolverine #2, August 2009	With copper & silver inclusions Wolverine #2, August 2009
with rare greenish chloride inclusions, Wolverine #2 Mine, August 2006	With rare chloride & copper inclusions Wolverine #2 Mine August 2007	Sharp banding Wolverine #2 Mine,  August 2009
Interlaying with prehnite, epidote and copper Wolverine #2 Mine, August 2006	Wolverine #2 Mine,  August 2009	Film of copper covered by single band of agate and rest is quartz. Wolverine #2 Mine,  August 2008