Ferberite

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Mineral guide

Learn about Ferberite

iron-rich wolframite with stout blade-like prisms and deep black luster; forms in hydrothermal tin-tungsten deposits; prized on quartz or fluorite.

Regional guide

Ferberite from Panasqueira Mines, Portugal

Panasqueira ferberite is the European classic against which most crystallized ferberite is judged. The best specimens are not merely black ore crystals: they are sculptural, high-luster, metallic to submetallic blades and thick tabular prisms, commonly striated, sometimes doubly terminated, and often set in the distinctive Panasqueira palette of white quartz, pearly muscovite, brown siderite, silvery arsenopyrite, purple to green fluorapatite, cassiterite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, calcite, and dolomite. In a cabinet, a good piece reads immediately as Panasqueira—black, heavy, sharp, and architectural, with the mine’s characteristic quartz-vein openness preserved in miniature.