Cassiterite

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

Intergrown, splendent, mirror bright, jet-black crystals of cassiterite are associated with minor, pearlescent muscovite in this stunning miniature. Cassiterite is common now from this locality. It may not always be this way and we will look back on this as a temporary flood of the world's finest cassiterites, with regret it lasted so few years. Still, amidst all the pieces coming out, most are of a common style - sharp, curving, disc-like crystals in clusters. Very few specimens of 3-dimensional, discrete crystals such as you see here have been produced in comparison to the vast quantity of the more common habit. Moreover, this is a piece that makes for a stunning miniature for its size and symmetry. The luster is like black glass, and the crystals are pristine and fully terminated all-around.