Detailed information
Dimensions
64 x 110 x 35
mm
Weight
293 g
Locality
San José Mine Oruro City, Cercado Province Oruro Department, Bolivia
Condition
No recorded repairs
Despite being world-renowned for sulphosalt minerals, the status of the Tetrahedrite Group species from San José mine in Oruro Department, Bolivia remains far from clear and really well crystallized pieces are quite rare from there. This older 'Tennantite' from David Hardman's collection is extremely richly crystallized both in overall size of coverage and the shape of its crystals but hasn't been analysed and so could be any of a number of species reported from their, including Tennantite-(Zn), Tetrahedrite-(Fe), Tetrahedrite-(Zn) or Freibergite Subgroup. The gunmetal-grey crystals reach up to 6 mm across and liberally cover the display surface of this specimen with many much smaller well-formed crystals and the occasional acicular Zinkenite crystal dotted around the surface too. There are also other species present, that are likely to be other sulphosalts and a little finely crystallized Quartz. A really great Tetrahedrite Group specimen from the high altitude Oruro City, at over 3,900 m above sea level.
