Proustite from Pöhla-Tellerhäuser Mine, Saxony, Germany

Help improve this record

No 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.

The Pöhla-Tellerhäuser mine is a relatively modern mine in comparison to the ancient silver mines across what is known as the Ore Mountains in Saxony, Germany. Commenced after World War 2 as a large uranium mine the deposit required considerable tunneling to reach, passing through a separate deposit of tin ore and presumably also silver-bearing veins. This small miniature sized crystallized silver sulphosalt specimen from Pöhla-Tellerhäuser mine is labelled as Proustite, but its dark colour and prominent resinous lustre indicate that it might well be the antimony analogue - Pyrargyrite. Specimens of any crystallized silver sulphosalts are rare from Pöhla-Tellerhäuser mine making this an unusual piece. There is some damage to a few of the crystals - some of which may well be natural etching - but at least one very nicely formed 7, to 8 mm wide crystal sits up and displays well on its creamy-white matrix.