Baryte

This splendid cluster of lemon-tinted, ice-clear gemmy Baryte crystals is from the Meikle mine in the Bootstrap District of Elko County, Nevada, USA and is a thing of great beauty.  At least twenty Baryte crystals of typically 1.3 cm on edge and 2 mm thick are intergrown and beneath adhere to a tenuous granular greenish-grey matrix of what appears to be a chlorite-type mineral.  This material does show through the Baryte cluster giving a contrasting underside which acts as an aesthetic foil to the clarity of the Baryte crystals.  Each Baryte is tinged a delicate yet most noticeable pale lemon and each forms a sharp rhombic tabular flatted prism, some with modified cut-off corners.  This is an outstanding specimen from Nevada, particularly striking because of its superb optical clarity.