Cobaltite

Unknown Owner

Classic Swedish specimen consisting of a loose single lustrous metallic sharply formed crystal of cobaltite. In terrific condition all around with no points of attachment.The Hakansboda copper-cobalt deposit, located in the Lindesberg municipality of Orebro County, Sweden, is a historic mining site situated within the prolific Bergslagen ore province. Geologically, the mineralization is hosted in a sequence of Paleoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks and skarns, where cobalt and copper were concentrated by hydrothermal processes billions of years ago. The site is world-famous among mineralogists for producing some of the most exceptional crystals of cobaltite ever discovered. Cobaltite, a cobalt arsenic sulfide, typically occurs at Hakansboda as sharp, lustrous, silver-white to steel-gray crystals that exhibit a distinct cubic or pyritohedral habit, often embedded in a matrix of calcite or chalcopyrite. Historically, the mine was worked intermittently from the 17th century through the early 20th century, primarily for copper and later for its cobalt content. Today, while the mine is no longer in operation, specimens from Hakansboda are considered the definitive standard for the species, appearing in major museum collections as premier examples of well-crystallized cobalt sulfides.