Pyrargyrite

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This is an excellent thumbnail Pyrargyrite crystal. Yes, it does somewhat lack the desirable red colour, for which Pyrargyrite was known as red silver, or fire silver, but there is no escaping the overall quality of its crystal form. At 1.9 cm tall this is a not insubstantial crystal, and it displays a wonderful trigonal termination with curved prism sides, just like in prismatic tourmaline crystals. It is dark grey with a fine resinous metallic lustre and is mounted on a small acrylic base for display and handling. San Genaro mine, from where it comes, was a vast opencast silver mine in the Castrovirreyna mining district in the Andes. Closed in 2014, it had operated successfully since at least the 1970s. Renowned for its high quality crystallized silver sulphosalts it is the Type Locality to three species: Argentotennantite-(Fe); Baumstarkite; Sangenaroite. Superb, world-class Pyrargyrite crystals were found their during the 1970s, but it is not known from which period this crystal came.