Wittichenite

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Although not from the precise Type Locality, this fascinating thumbnail specimen of Wittichenite is from one of the neighbouring mines in Wittichen - Daniel mine. This information is borne out by its wonderful accompanying old, 19th century, handwritten label which also uses the old name Klaprothit, of Peterson. Comprising white bladed Baryte and a little orange host rock, the Baryte contains dark steely-grey metallic needles, wider dark grey metallic crystal sections and small golden flecks of Chalcopyrite. Based on the needle-like form, some of the crystals might be another copper bismuth sulphide - Emplectite - which is often intergrown with Wittichenite. It comes from the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021).