Native Silver (wire)

An elegant miniature specimen of native silver wire from the Keeley Mine from the famous Cobalt silver camp of Ontario, Canada. The piece features gracefully curved silver wire with a dark natural patina, making it an attractive three-dimensional sample. Wire silver from the Cobalt area is well known, but miniature-sized specimens of this quality and aesthetic form are seldom encountered, as most examples are either 1cm thumbnails or consist of tiny wires on matrix. This is a dramatic and highly displayable specimen.

The Keeley Mine, discovered in 1907, was one of the important producers in the Cobalt silver camp and operated until 1965. It later became connected underground with the neighbouring Frontier Mine, developed in 1921, along the same vein system. Together the Keeley–Frontier operations produced over 19 million ounces of silver along with cobalt, nickel, and copper. The Woods Vein, associated with these workings, was particularly famous for its deep oxidation zone and abundant secondary silver mineralization, which produced many fine wire silver specimens. Antique Cobalt specimens rarely carry a precise mine attribution, making this example from the Keeley Mine especially desirable.