Sphalerite with Pyrite and Quartz

A showy cabinet specimen of sub-horizontally stepped Sphalerite crystals preferentially coated with iridescent brassy Pyrite and opaque, snow-white Quartz. The specimen is from the Huarón Mining District in Pasco province, Peru, and certainly delivers a lot of bang for your buck. Were this an old time specimen it would be valued at many time its price, yet such modern-day specimens are much more readily affordable. Once these mines are closed, these too will become old classics as they lack for nothing mineralogically or aesthetically. The Sphalerite forms a face of stepped, broad, bladed crystals averaging around 1.5 cm wide, whose ends are dusted in micro-crystals of Pyrite. The top is coated in micro-crystallised white Quartz which delineates the Sphalerite crystals, together with individual terminated Quartz crystals to 1.5 cm tall. A delightful Sphalerite with Pyrite and Quartz from Huarón.