Updated 3d ago

Raspite

$8,500.00

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As explained by Bill Birch in his book on the minerals of Broken Hill it is extremely difficult to get hold of well defined and intensely coloured crystals of Raspite from its Type Locality at Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia, but that is exactly what we have here. This very large miniature specimen of iron-rich gossan features a 2.5 x 1.2 cm cavity containing extremely well formed individual chisel-shaped glassy orange Raspite crystals reaching 3.5 mm in length, and most are doubly-terminated. This extremely rare form of lead tungstate - the polymorph of Stolzite - was reportedly only found sparingly in the upper levels of the Proprietary mine beneath Jamieson's shaft in the 1890s, which is why good species are highly prized. This particular specimen came from the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021).