Stibnite on Baryte

The mines around Băiuț in Maramureș County, Romania, produced gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper and are known to be of quite early origin, probably dating to the medieval period. This showy and fine example of metallic, blackish-silver Stibnite crystals sits on an interwoven set of snow white, narrow blades of Baryte. It could be argued the Baryte sits on the Stibnite! At first appearance the Baryte looks like jackstraw cerussite because end-on, the crystals look more acicular than tabular. The Stibnite forms blades averaging 2 to 2.5 cm long and probably up to 3 cm. They form as rich wheatsheaf-like bundles, all standing sub- to near-vertical from the base. Some of the terminations are slightly bruised, yet this is minor and not noticeable without low magnification.