galena mine

Historic mine photo showing a mine face of high grade Pb ore. Massive swirling lustrous galena has replaced quartz (some of the milky quartz is still present at the top and top left of the photo). Galena has invaded massive white calcite along cleavages (left center). Some of the galena immediately behind the folding rule is what was referred to as "steel galena", a dissemintated, very fine grained variety. The Pend Oreille Mine galena contained very little silver; the lead concentrates shipped from the mill typically assayed only one to two ounces of silver per ton of concentrate (Jim Browne, personal communication, December 2013)
Pend Oreille Mine, near Metaline Falls, Pend Oreille County, Washington, USA

Photo Copyright © 2013 Jeffrey M. Schwartz. Photo taken in August 1962 by Jim Browne.