Tennantite - image 1

Tennantite

M

MIM Museum
0 for sale
Perfect gray tetrahedron, covered with shiny micro-crystallized quartz, on a thin blade of matrix covered with small quartz crystals.

Product details

Species
TennantiteAbout Tennantite →
Added on11/10/2024
Locality
Namibia, Oshikoto Region, TsumebRegional guide →

Learn more

Mineral guide
Learn about Tennantite
sharp tetrahedral crystals with gunmetal luster, prized by collectors for classic localities, rarity, and display-worthy specimens.
Tennantite
Regional guide
Tennantite from Tsumeb, Namibia
Tsumeb tennantite is one of the great paradoxes of the classic mineral world: the species was an abundant ore mineral in the mine, yet sharp, attractive, display-worthy crystals are decidedly uncommon. The best pieces have a sober, gunmetal beauty—steel-gray to charcoal tetrahedra, sometimes frosted or etched, sometimes shimmering under a druse of minute quartz. In the finest examples, the metallic geometry is softened by Tsumeb’s unmistakable secondary-mineral palette: white dolomite, clear to milky quartz, yellow wulfenite, green malachite, mimetite, smithsonite, duftite, zincolivenite, and a remarkable range of arsenates generated from the oxidation of the sulfide ore.