Gem from shuttered Colorado mine could fetch thousands at auction

DENVER ( KDVR ) — A gem that was found decades ago in a now-shuttered Colorado mine is going for thousands of dollars in an auction.

According to the Colorado School of Mines , the Sweet Home Mine in Park County began as a silver mine for about 100 years. At that time, rhodochrosite was considered a nuisance and was often in the miners’ way while they mined for silver. That was until the silver industry collapsed and miners began selling the rhodochrosite to museums across the country.

Heritage’s Fine Minerals Signature Auction said the gem was excavated in the ’90s along with many other gems that went on display in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Now, the rhodochrosite from Colorado’s Sweet Home Mine is considered one of the top attractions in the Oct. 18 auction.

The auction site said that the rhodochrosite found in the shuttered Colorado mine are “some of the best in the world” because of their color and crystals. Now that the mine has closed, it makes the gems all the more valuable.

“The closing of the Sweet Home Mine, and now the Detroit City Portal, means that access to the vein that produced some of the most incredible rhodochrosites is completely gone,” said Nic Valenzuela, director of fine minerals at Heritage Auctions.

The bidding starts at $8,000 for the coveted gem.

This gem is being auctioned alongside minerals from mines in São José da Safira, Brazil , Minas Gerais, Brazil , Artigas, Uruguay , the Kunene Region in Namibia , the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan and El Dorado County, California , all of which are going for thousands of dollars.

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