Altaite with Pyrite

$2,500.00

$40.00 shipping
Seller offers an extended return window of up to 30 days
Ships from USA

Crystal ClassicsFeatured

Tucson, Arizona, USA

7,543 for sale·132 sold

Before discussing the rare species Altaite, we better just mention and clarify this locality, Red Cloud mine. Most collectors will have just one thought with the mention of Red Cloud mine and that's Wulfenite. Yet buyer beware! The mine under consideration here is Red Cloud in the Gold Hill Mining District of Boulder County, Colorado, not its more famous namesake in La Paz County, Arizona! The Colorado Red Cloud mine was a former gold mine and lists twenty mineral species, including the lead telluride Altaite, with the straight forward chemical formula PbTe. The tin silver white Altaite richly pervades the Quartz matrix as hackly granular anhedral patches and small euhedral crystals which can be seen twinkling in the video, together with micro-crystals of golden Pyrite. More often than not, such telluride minerals are not high in the beauty of aesthetic stakes, but are treasured for their rarity and fascinating chemistry. It's a great example from "the other" Red Cloud mine.