Betekhtinite

$2,500.00

$40.00 shipping
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Tucson, Arizona, USA

7,543 for sale·132 sold

Originally described from two mines in Germany during the 1950s it was not until 1998 that really rich highly visible crystallized aggregates of Betekhtinite (a rare copper-iron-lead sulphide) were discovered, in the Dzhezkazgan Mining District in the Karaganda Region of Kazakhstan and these have never been bettered since. This excellent miniature size specimen, is a mass of aligned black metallic bladed Betekhtinite crystals forming a column-like structure and terminated by numerous individual euhedral (complete) crystals and cleaved tips, the latter due to contact with the original in-situ host rock. The rich copper-zinc deposit at Dzhezkazgan is hosted in a succession of Upper Carboniferous sandstone bodies. This is a remarkably good specimen from that important find. It is from the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021).