Mineral Collecting at the Vulcan, Mammoth Chimney & Good Hope Mines

Abandoned Mines in Gunnison County, Colorado

Site Information & Mineral Collecting

There are several different mines here according to records. The Vulcan Mine, The Mammoth Chimney Mine & The Good Hope Mine are all located in one area in Gunnison County Colorado. It is hard to tell where one is over the other but the main mine dump sits on top of the hill. You should be able to find many nice specimens all over this area. You do have to travel through private property which is clearly marked so please stay on the road. Once you reach the top of the hill and the mine dump, you are on BLM land and it is open to collecting. There are remains of buildings and cabins on the way up to the mine which make for some nice photographs. The mines produced Sulphur in the early 1900's and then copper was mined during WWI. The main ore vein was comprised of Quartz, Galena, Sphalerite, & Pyrite along with minor amounts of chalcopyrite, gray copper, sylvanite, Tellurium and native gold & silver. If you are looking for some nice Pyrite specimens, this is the place! You will see pyrite sand all over the place as it is decomposing from the rocks and flows into "pyrite streams" at the base of the mine dump. Also look for the white rock that looks like driveway gravel. This is where we found some nice crystals of pyrite. We did not find any pyrite cubes but the rounded crystals are still quite stunning against the white background of the host rock. We also found many good specimens of Limonite and Orange colored quartz which is most likely staining from the Iron. Pyrite is Iron disulfude and the smell of sulphur is stronger at this mine than any other we have visited. Nothing quite like the smell of a mine dump!

Site Details

Elevation - 9,035
Vehicle Access - Easy
Foot access - Easy
GPS coordinates - N38°20.644 W107°00.297
Maps used - Colorado Gazetteer
Mineral occurrences - Chalcopyrite, Pyrite, Limonite, Sulphur, Sphalerite, Tellurium, Petzie, Coloradoite, Rickardite, Weissite, Vulcanite, Tetrahydrite, Cameronite, Arsenopyrite
Minerals found by author - Pyrite, Limonite, Quartz

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