Rhodochrosite with NATIVE Copper

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

Wolf mine at Herdorf in Siegerland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany is one of the most important localities for Rhodochrosite in Europe. Specimens from there are very distinctive, with a much more orange-red, rather than pink colour, and are much sought after, having only been available when this iron mine was operating, and it closed in 1962. This rich small cabinet-sized specimen features many Rhodochrosite crystals lining cavities within an orange iron-rich limonitic host rock, but is accompanied by many small sprigs of tarnished Native Copper which is an exceptionally rare association. The Rhodochrosite crystals form seed-like and rounded 'scaly' aggregates, the later being referred to historically as "raspberry spar".