Peruvian Minerals

Peru is rich in minerals and mining history dating back to the Incas and hundreds of years mining by the Spanish. The nation is most renowned for silver mining, and for having the world’s fourth largest mercury mine at Huancavelica. Peru has over 782 mineral localities, including at least 27 type localities reported in mindat.org. Combined databases from MRDS (from the USGS) and INGEMMET (Peruvian geological survey) mark 7,193 mineral occurrences in Peru. For an excellent overview see the book “Peru Paraiso de Minerales” by Hyrsl, Crowley, Currier, and Szenics (2010). This edition, sponsored by the Museo Andres del Castillo, has quality mineral pictures, but unfortunately the book binding quickly disintegrated from the hardback cover. In addition, the magazine Mineralogical Record vol. 28 from 1997 featured the Mines and Minerals of Peru. Mineral specimens for sale are generally dominated by the varieties highlight below, finding other species to add to a representative country collection can be a challenge.

Most common Peru minerals available

(photos from our collection)

Brilliant pyrite from Huanzala in northern Peru, at the southern end of the Cordillera Blanca, started production in 1968 and is operated by Mitsui. The underground mine has been variable termed a manto, CRD (carbonate replacement deposit), and skarn. Pyrite from this mine makes exceptionally large fine cubes and nice clusters of pyritohedrons. Pyrite from Huanzala can be found for sale in many places in Peru and through international dealers. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hübnerite from Pasto Bueno district in northern Peru is a vein system that is tungsten rich. The very dark vitreous tabular hübnerite crystals are intergrown with clear quartz, making comb texture open-space vein crustification with crystal sizes commonly reaching up to 4 to 5 centimeters. Similar specimens come from the Nuevo Mundo mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rhodochrosite from Uchucchacua (Peru has at least 59 other locations with reported rhodochrosite in the MRDS database, and Uchucchacua has over 57 mineral varieties listed in mindat.org). The Uchucchacua rhodochrosites are best known for their nice crystal habits, transparency with moderate to brilliant pink hues, and they command fairly high prices for the better material. Lighter color opaque pink rhodochrosite specimens from the Manuelita vein in Morococha district is perhaps the second best known location in Peru.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tetrahedrite from Casapalca mine is situated along the main paved highway to the highlands, located just west of the divide at Ticlio in central Peru. The Casapalca mines were first discovered in 1888, but large-scale production did not happen until 1919. The Casapalca mine has numerous veins that are mined underground, and these yield many of the mineral types mentioned below. Tetrahedrite is particularly abundant and forms nice large crystals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peru is more endowed with silver-sulfosalts as the primary reason for mineral extraction. While today silver is mostly about a cheaper form of jewellery, for hundreds of years it was minted into coins and was the primary currency of the Spanish Empire. The main silver minerals are pyrargyrite, proustite, polybasite, and argentite. These are typically associated with copper ± arsenic ± antimony ± lead – sulfides of enargite (As), tetrahedrite (Sb), tennantite (As), and bournonite (Sb-Pb). In addition to silver, Peru yields fine examples of chalcopyrite come from many of the mines. In the gangue minerals, many of these polymetallic veins are accompanied by coarse barite. All of the above mineral varieties are commonly mixed together in vein samples along with clear quartz, galena, and dark sphalerite. The polymetallic veins can also come with sprays of stibnite, some bismuthinite, or blebs of realgar. Other less traded minerals are garnet and epidote from skarn masses, and even less common and not particularly good quality is schorl tourmaline from several locations in Peru. Very coarse honey-colored scheelite crystals have been produced in the Turmalina mine in northern Peru. The world’s fourth largest mercury mine at Santa Barbara, near the city of Huancavelica, is a deposit of cinnabar, but collector’s samples from here are very rare because the main deposit was closed in 1786 following tragic Marroquin underground collapse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

List of main historic mining camps:

Casapalca, Castrovirreyna, Cerro de Pasco, Colquijirca, Huachocolpa, Huancavelica, Huaron, Julcani, Morococha (type locality for enargite), Orcopampa, Pachapaqui, Pasto Bueno, Quiruvilca, Raura, and Rinconada. For stories on exploring the geology underground in the vein mines of Julcani, Huachocolpa, and Castrovirreyna, see the book Field Days in Peru

 Mineral museums in Lima:

Mineral museum at the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería includes many interesting specimens, including more than half of the rock and mineral collection of famous Peru geographer Antonio Raimondi. Arranging access to the museum may take some effort because they do not have many visitors.

Museo Andrés Del Castillo is the collection from an important Peruvian Mining family, and it is housed in the historic building of the old USA embassy in the old center of Lima near the Plaza San Martin. The collection features many massive sized specimens from the main Peru localities, yet it is overly redundant showing every lesser small specimen from the same mines, and is missing many very important mineral types from Peru.

 

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