3.45" Galena, Calcite, and Pyrite Association - Peru

The Huanzala mine in Bolognesi Province, 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 that look phenomenal growing all over one another.

Galena is a lead based mineral that is in fact the primary ore of lead, and has been used for its lead content for thousands of years. Galena typically displays a gray metallic luster and forms cubes or octahedral crystals. The chemical composition of galena is PbS.

While galena will not pose a health hazard by sitting on the shelf, or even from casual handling, we suggest washing hands following handling due to the lead content of the mineral.