Bournonite Coated With Bindheimite

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Bindheimite is a hydrous lead antimony oxide produced from the alteration of other ores. It rarely forms its own discernible crystals, usually simply taking the form of other minerals it has replaced, or pseudomorphed. The Hüttenberg mining district in Carinthia, Austria is famous for one of the most notable types of pseudomorph of Bindheimite - that after cogwheel Bournonite crystals. Specimens from the Felixbau mine, many of which were found in the 1940s, display mottled lime-green, mustard-yellow and rusty-brown pseudomorphs of Bindheimite after large, rather chunky, blocky Bournonite crystals, many to over 2 cm across, and all very clearly displaying deep furrows around the prism faces forming a new generation of 'cog-wheel ore'. Despite the crystals very mottled texture their surface form is extremely well-defined. This exceptional example is ex Franz Lammer collection and bears an older number label (88).