New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

At the New Mexico Mineral Symposium in 1996, I presented a paper by the same title, Part I, where I described the more famous occurrences of the various silver minerals, including their mining history.

Part II of the "Ugly ores of silver" includes a photo presentation of some of the more common silver minerals, from both classic localities and some not so well known. Most are from some of the classic western United States localities. 

All of the above specimens were collected over a period of 40 yrs and were obtained primarily through the purchase of collections or museum trades. They were selected either for their crystallinity or their unique or rare locality. Identification of the silver minerals was confirmed by optical and x-ray diffraction analyses. The above silver minerals represent approximately 20% of my total collection of the "Ugly ores of silver."