Aragonite

Well-formed prismatic crystals of white Aragonite from Špania Dolina in Banská Bystrica County, Slovakia, a classic old-time location. The hydrothermal mineralisation at this site has been mined for over 1,000 years, principally for Chalcopyrite, Siderite and Tetrahedrite. This rather delightful Aragonite forms a radiating, fan-like array of divergent, translucent, pseudo-hexagonal prisms of a colourless to milky white to 3 cm tall with flat pinacoid terminations. The display face is tinted a lovely patchy lemon yellow, formed from inclusions of what is thought to be an iron oxide (although not confirmed) within the Aragonite. The yellow colouration is a characteristic feature of many Aragonite specimens from this locality. Under LWUV, the upper parts of the prisms, just below and including the terminations, appear to fluoresce a dull and somewhat ethereal brownish-red. This could be a result of reflected light from the visible light-end of the ultra violet light source I am using, but I do think it more a true UV property of the Aragonite.