Arsenic

This is an unusually well-crystallized Native Arsenic specimen from Kusa mine at Bau, Sarawak, Malaysia. Typically, Native Arsenic worldwide is seen as rounded, layered, 'onion-skin', botryoidal specimens like those seen in the classic European sites such as St. Andreasberg in Harz, Germany, but even those are uncommon. This small cabinet specimen from Kusa mine has that underlying botryoidal form, with two main rounded masses, but externally, these are covered in smaller individual matt dark grey crystals with a little white Calcite infilling the 'valley' between the botryoids. On the underside of the specimen the concave internal surfaces of the Native Arsenic are sparsely scattered with small red patches of Realgar. A really very well-crystallized Native Arsenic specimen from this important far east locality.