Reviews
2.75" Intricate Sphalerite on Quartz - Peru
This is a gorgeous cluster of lustrous tetrahedral sphalerite crystals on a bed of quartz, including some blackish galena and a small mass of orange orpiment. It was collected from the Huanzala Mine in Peru. The entire specimen measures 2.75" wide and sits nicely on a flat surface.
The Huanzala mine in the Bolognesi Province of Áncash, Peru is an excellent example of a mine with exceptional quality, variety, and availability. Traditionally a lead-zinc mine, Huanzala holds the record for the most mineral tonnage extracted by a single mine. This is quite the feat and it's easy to see why minerals from this locality are so aggressively mined and collected.
This mine has a multitude of awesome minerals from sharply terminated quartz to sparkly pyrite, bubbly aragonite and dense galena. Other common minerals are realgar, orpiment, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, manganoan calcite, rhodonite, rhodochrosite, cassiterite, barite, fluorite and fluorapatite, among other less prevalent minerals. Mineral associations from this mine often contain three to four minerals at once, growing all over one another in phenomenal associations.
This mine has a multitude of awesome minerals from sharply terminated quartz to sparkly pyrite, bubbly aragonite and dense galena. Other common minerals are realgar, orpiment, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, manganoan calcite, rhodonite, rhodochrosite, cassiterite, barite, fluorite and fluorapatite, among other less prevalent minerals. Mineral associations from this mine often contain three to four minerals at once, growing all over one another in phenomenal associations.
SPECIES
Quartz, Sphalerite, Galena & Orpiment
LOCATION
Huanzala Mine, Huallanca District, Bolognesi Province, Peru
SIZE
2.75 x 2.7"
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#287611
