Sylvanite

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Sylvanite is a rare gold-silver telluride named in 1835 for the region of Romania from where it was first discovered. This magnificent cabinet specimen is from the historic mining district of Cripple Creek in Teller County, Colorado, a name so evocative of the pioneering mining days in North America. A lozenge-shaped block of yellowish light grey Quartz matrix has its upper surface criss-crossed by numerous linear assemblages of crystallised metallic silver Sylvanite, often displaying a play of iridescent colours. The linear Sylvanite features extend across the fracture surface up to 6 cm long and probably represent fluid-flow pathways along which the metal-rich solutions were able to permeate within a tightly closed fracture plane. This is an extremely rich specimen of such an iconic gold species.