Detailed information
Dimensions
40 x 47 x 38
mm
Locality
Huanuni Mine Huanuni, Dalence Province Oruro Department, Bolivia
Condition
No recorded repairs
Custom Stand
Yes - custom stand included
In terms of South American tin deposits, the Huanuni mine is the largest, and is in fact the largest tin deposit in the world. Like many of the Bolivian mines it is remote, on a scale barely conceivable to most collectors. Sitting in the Andes mountains the nearby town of Huanuni is over 4,000 metres above sea level where the air is thin. So, although it is a huge tin mine, the number of Cassiterite specimens to reach the outside world is relatively small and many of the best ones are actually those that came out many decades ago. This superb miniature piece presents the famous highly elongated prismatic twinned crystal form, often called 'drill-bit' crystals due to their distinctive stepped, pointed, pyramidal terminations. Glossy and black, and forming a spray of crystals to about 1.5 cm in length radiating outwards, this style of Cassiterite is reminiscent of pieces collected in the 1980s and earlier in the 1960s. Minor white Quartz can be seen underneath. It comes with a custom-made Sunnywood acryllic display stand.
