Native Silver (wire)

An elegant specimen of native silver wire from the Keeley Mine, one of the most famous silver camps of Cobalt, Ontario. The piece features gracefully curved silver wire, making for an attractive sample that was originally collected in the 1930s. Wire silver from the Cobalt area is well known, but specimens of this quality and aesthetic form are seldom encountered, as most examples consist of collections of many teeny tiny wires. This is a dramatic and 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 wire specimens rarely carry a precise mine attribution, making this example from the Keeley Mine especially desirable.