Galena with Fluorite and Quartz

The Layer Cake Pocket aptly describes its contents with this small cabinet specimen being an exemplary example. The Layer Cake Pocket was a small cavity within The Bull Vein at Lady Annabella mine, close to Eastgate in Weardale, County Durham, England. Specimen recovery mining began here is the summer of 2020 working a Fluorite-rich bench in the old Eastgate quarry, formerly known as the Blue Circle Cement Quarry. The Bull Vein, named for local collector Fred Bull, has produced a staggering variety of top quality Fluorite and this is a gorgeous example. Covering an inner core of hard ironstone, a metasomatic replacement of limestone, Galena forms excellent cubic crystals of between 1 and 1.5 cm on edge, with silver grey frosted faces and many with corners just slightly modified to the octahedron. In the centre is a small group of gemmy lemon yellow Fluorite crystals and over these and the Galena are scattered stubby milky white Quartz crystals with a bright glassy lustre.