Updated 3d ago

Arsenopyrite

$12,500.00

$40.00 shipping
Seller offers an extended return window of up to 30 days
Ships from USA

The San José mine situated near the centre of the high altitude Oruro City, in Oruro Department, Bolivia has been known for generations for its remarkable suite of well-crystallized sulphosalt species. It is also famous for some of the world's finest crystals of the rare copper iron tin sulphide, Stannite, although things have got confused with the identification of the compositionally identical species Ferrokesterite, also in world-class crystals. Both species are rare in good crystals at San José mine and when a specimen can be found it is usually miniature in size. That is what makes this cabinet-sized display specimen so important, but more importantly is the size and quality of the crystals, which reach to over 1.8 cm across. Intergrown, yet mostly well-formed, and with some clear twinning for which this mine is famous, these complex 'rounded' tetrahedral crystals glisten as they are moved in the light, due to many tiny stepped surfaces across their dark grey crystal faces. In association are small silvery crystals of Arsenopyrite and darker grey acicular Jamesonite and some areas of crystallized Quartz are seen around the edges of the specimen. Ex Professor Werner Paar Collection this is, as one would expect, a world-class Stannite.