Silver

Silver is exceptionally rare at Franklin, having been found there, so far as known, only once. This occurrence, according to Mr. E. D. Schuster, was on the 1050-foot level of the mine, about 400 feet south of the Parker shaft and a few feet from the footwall but entirely within the ore body. The total amount of material was probably not more than a few pounds, of which silver formed an insignificant part.

The specimens, of which but a few are preserved and which were received in 1909, consist chiefly of massive steel-gray chalcocite. Fracture surfaces reveals scattered, sharply formed octahedrons of magnetite, whose faces are faintly marked with triangular striations. The silver forms thin sheets or films between the chalcocite and the magnetite, exactly outlining the form of the octahedrons. It does not coat all the crystals nor does it completely envelop all on which it is present. The silver is discolored when freshly exposed, but it is perfectly malleable and possesses the typical color and other characteristics.

The specimens contained a little massive white quartz, which is later than the magnetite and is of the same age as the chalcocite. There is, however, no evidence of a distinct vein, and all the minerals merge insensibly into typical, massive franklinite-willemite ore.

It is stated by Mr. Nitchie, spectroscopist in the Palmerton laboratory of the New Jersey Zinc Company, that silver is present in spectroscopic traces in many of the Franklin minerals.


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