Wurtzite with Galena, Sphalerite and Quartz

This rich combination of species is built up from an underlying core of massive Sphalerite capped with a 1 cm layer of Galena. The surface of the Galena is covered with bright metallic silver Galena crystals with, what is often termed, a ‘melted-look’. This produces smooth, rounded crystals, some showing etched contour lines about their circumference. The Galena has a dazzling metallic lustre causing the specimen to glitter. Amongst these are equant black Sphalerite crystals, faces of which commonly have a golden-yellow to greenish-yellow translucency. Overgrowing much of the Galena and Sphalerite are druses of micro-crystalline Quartz, themselves coated in even finer microcrystals of reddish-brown Wurtzite. An excellent specimen from the Příbram mining district in the Czech Republic.