Sylvanite

The mere mention of Cripple Creek instantly conjures images of gold, the Wild West, gun-fights and old mining shanty towns!  This Gold-rich district in Teller County, Colorado, USA, is well known for its gold telluride minerals, one of which is Sylvanite.  Sylvanite is a gold-silver telluride, meaning that these two precious elements are combined with the element tellurium for which gold has an affinity.  This superb cabinet specimen displays rich arborescent fronds of pale golden-silver Sylvanite which lay flat amongst small rhombohedral Calcite crystals, mainly coloured biscuit-brown.  At least three long stems of crystallised Sylvanite cross the surface, the longest measuring 4.7 cm, from which linear chains of Sylvanite crystals branch from one side in a half-herringbone fashion.  An excellent specimen of Sylvanite from one of the most famous and historic localities known.  Ex. the Dr Josef Clemente Collection of southern Germany.