Calcite with Galena and Chalcopyrite - image 1

Calcite with Galena and Chalcopyrite

$450.00

$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

I think it safe to say, just one sideways glance at this lovely Calcite with Galena and Chalcopyrite is enough say it's from Sweetwater mine, probably one of the most famous mineral localities in North America. Sweetwater mine, at Ellington in Reynolds County, Missouri, has produced so many classic specimens, it feels like it must be one of the old time pioneering mines. Not so the case, as it only began working in 1968. Those of a younger generation reading this probably think 1968 is ancient history, yet for me it is the time of the Apollo programme with the first moon landing only one year away. This cabinet specimen has an overall length of 9.8 cm displaying double terminated prismatic Calcite crystals to about 3 cm perched over a matrix of small rhombic Calcite crystals with small Galena and Chalcopyrite crystals. I'm uncertain of the correct terminology, but the large prisms are more highly distorted and elongated rhombs than the truer form of scalenohedral habit. A super specimen with one of the Sweetwater mine's characteristic Calcite habits.