Detailed information
Dimensions
45 x 66 x 43
mm
Weight
67 g
Locality
Machów Mine Tarnobrzeg, Podkarpackie Poland
Condition
No recorded repairs
Like the quills on a Porcupine, the colour-zoned acicular crystals of Baryte rising up from a finely crystallized thin bed of yellow Native Sulphur from Machów mine, near Tarnobrzeg, Podkarpackie, Poland are so amazingly sharp - like needles. Sometimes seen labelled Celestine, there is much confusion over the chemistry of these stunning acicular crystals. Despite a seemingly never ending supply of Baryte/Celestine crystals back in the 1980s, few were undamaged, and having closed in the early 1990s, its vast opencast workings are now flooded as a recreational lake and specimens are harder to find available. These beautiful colour-zoned pointed crystals have sherry-coloured tips and a pale grey to cream centre. A cluster of crystals at one end of this miniature-sized specimen are broken off, but nearly all of the other acicular crystals are in perfect condition, making for a fine display.
