3" Baryte & Marcasite Slice - Lubin Mine, Poland

Southwest Poland is home to some of the largest copper and silver ore mines in the world, each housing a variety of metallic minerals. The average depths of these mines are around 1000m, and together the total length of the tunnels reach over 10,000m. The Lubin Mine being one of these. It is known for primarily producing large amounts of important minerals known as chalcocite, bornite and chalcopyrite; each of which are composed from copper.

The Lubin Mine was discovered and developed during the 1960's, and to this day is still a copper and silver producing mine. In 2011, during the excavation process, a miner came across a large fault. Following further mining in the roof of this tunnel portion, a cavity was discovered.

Using a ladder to climb into this cavity, the miner observed that the pocket continued another 5 meters (16.4 ft) upward, then curved into an irregular 11 meter (36 ft) long tunnel that in some parts were tall enough to stand in.

The walls of the cavity were covered in kidney-shaped baryte "balls", each of which was coated in a layer of colorful and sparkling marcasite crystals. The wall's arrangement ranged between convex and concave formations, including some stalactitic structures throughout the cavity. Every inch of this cavity contained these baryte and marcasite mineralizations, leaving the cavity with an incredible shimmer.

Shortly after discovery, this cavernous pocket was filled with concrete for structural stability purposes. Fortunately, a relatively small amount of these mineral conglomerates were able to be extracted. However, due to the filling of this pocket, the marcasite and baryte collected from this location in it's short period of time is all that is on the market.