Diaphorite

A 7 mm long crystal of Diaphorite, a rare silver-lead-antimony sulphosalt, sits flat in a Quartz crystal-lined vug within a matrix of banded milky Quartz and Galena.  This fine miniature is from the Vojtech mine (aka Adalbert mine) at Příbram in the Czech Republic, a mine dating back to 1779.  This mine found fame when it became the first in the world to reach a depth of 1000 m (1 km) and exploited the Brezové Hory deposit for lead and silver.  The Diaphorite forms several 1 to 3 mm crystals all nucleated at the base of the large 7 mm crystal, all crystals being brassy gold with striated faces parallel to their long axis. Dotted over the Quartz within the vug and surrounding the Diaphorite are pinhead sized blood red crystals, thought likely to be Sphalerite.  A superbly crystallised specimen of rare Diaphorite from the Vojtech mine.