CATTIERITE

SPECIMEN DESCRIPTION

For a straight forward sulphide of cobalt with a cubic (isometric) structure you might think there would be hundreds of known occurrences, but this is not the case for Cattierite. Indeed, it was only named in 1945. Compare this to other cobalt-bearing species like Carrollite and Cobaltite and they were discovered a century or more earlier and start to look positively common in comparison. This good, larger miniature-sized specimen of Cattierite is from the Type Locality at Shinkolobwe, Katanga Copper Crescent, Dem. Rep. of Congo and is from the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021). Unlike many of the other cobalt sulphide and cobalt sulphosalt species Cattierite is rarely seen as perfect freestanding crystals. This great representative specimen of this rare species features obvious, sharp, silvery grey metallic cubic Cattierite crystals embedded within Calcite. These crystals reach 4.5 mm on edge and are dispersed in several clusters throughout the specimen.