Cassiterite

$150.00

$40.00 shipping
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I don't think this Cassiterite specimen would win any prizes for its beauty, but for those connoisseurs of minerals from the china clay pits around St. Austell in Cornwall, perhaps it is an ugly beauty! This larger sized cabinet specimen has a sloping wedge of part-kaolinized St. Austell granite with a fracture surface almost entirely coated with sooty black Cassiterite. The texture of the Cassiterite is almost that of a solidified slag, although examination under low magnification reveals an intergrown network of tiny acicular crystals which turn translucent clove-brown once caught in transmitted light. It may be ugly but is a rich specimen from the Goonbarrow China Clay Pit at Bugle, Treverbyn, close to St. Austell.