Dwarves' Earth Treasures: Datolites from Laurium and LaSalle Mines

Dwarves' Earth Treasures Online Museum:
Datolites of Laurium & LaSalle Mines
Laurium & LaSalle Mines, Laurium, Houghton Co., Michigan
Field-collecting Status: Private Property(Moyle Construction), Collect at one's own risk.

.    Laurium Mine is one of very few mine dumps which I know exactly where to find datolites. I have a short story to tell about those unusual datolites I found at Laurium Mine. On August 2004, I was just walking over the bulldozed mine dump of Laurium Mine (behind a church) with my eyes on the ground as always, and I happened to spot a datolite in plain view (how can anyone have missed that one?!), but I was running out of time to search for more.
     Next year, I came back to the exact spot where I found the first datolite, and just 40 minutes later (according to someone else who was with me), I already found three more datolites (not counting a clip). Again, I found two more datolites in August 2006 and another one (possibly last) in August 2007. It was obvious that the miners hit on a single datolite seam and dumped the datolites on one spot. As of August 2008, the datolite spot is buried by bulldozing and until that spot has been exposed once again, I don't think that I'll be able to find more. The unusual thing about the Laurium datolites is that they contain "mossy" flicks of copper (think of moss agates) that make those datolites look brownish-red, and one black datolite had been found too.
    The LaSalle Mine is southern "next door" to the Laurium Mine appeared to have produced very few datolites and I got a couple from an old collector.

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Datolites from Laurium Mine


First datolite I found at Laurium Mine and it was in plain view! August 2004	Check out the mossy details of copper in this specimen! August 2005	The ghostly white areas are actually fractures just beneath the surface. August 2005

Rare black datolite and very reddish datolite, both containing copper inclusions. August 2006	With copper inclusions as usual August 2007	This one was found in the bulldozer's tracks, hence it was very fractured. August 2005

August 2005	August 2005

Datolites from LaSalle Mine (just south of Laurium Mine)