Pyrite

This attractive cluster of complexly developed Pyrite crystals is from the Bayerland mine at Pfaffenreuth in Bavaria, Germany; an iron mine which worked mainly Pyrite and operated between World War 2 and 1971. The golden brassy Pyrite crystals, typically around 1 cm diameter, are surrounded by numerous smaller crystals which together bind the specimen together. One large Pyrite crystal to 1.6 cm is partly buried among the other crystals. The crystal habit ranges between cuboctahedral and pyritohedron, with prism faces varying between mirror-like and roughly pitted. This Pyrite is a fine and representative example from the Bayerland mine, which worked both phyllite and mica schist-hosted orebodies.