Millerite with Calcite

$750.00

$40.00 shipping
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Tucson, Arizona, USA

7,579 for sale·132 sold

A rare and relatively rich old-time specimen of Millerite on Calcite from the St. Andreasberg mining district in the Harz Mountains of Lower Saxony, Germany. The Millerite crystals are very tiny, probably never exceeding 1 mm in length and mainly much shorter. They form a velvety druse covering a roughly 4 x 2 cm area of Calcite matrix, which in itself has an aged patina. The Millerite, a nickel sulphide, forms metallic acicular micro hair-like crystals of dull bronze, often with a reddish-purple tarnish. Greyish-cream hexagonal Calcite crystals to about 4 mm diameter are associated with the Millerite. The specimen comes with two very old copperplate, handwritten labels. A particularly rare example of Millerite from St. Andreasberg, a species very seldom encountered even when the mines were operational.