Sold Specimens, Gallery B
Galleries
of Sold Specimens:
A
B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R S T
U V W
XY
Z
Agates Sold Calcites Sold Mont St-Hilaire Sold
NOTE:
Bastnäsite-(Ce) & Berthierine from Mont St-Hilaire
have been moved to Mont
St-Hilaire Sold
click on image
for larger view
BAB9-1 Babingtonite $45 SOLD
Grönsjöberget, Borlänge, Dalarna, Sweden
5.5 cm x 3.8 cm x 3.5 cm
A rich covering of black Babingtonite Ca2(Fe,Mn)FeSi5O14(OH) crystals to 5mm from an old limestone quarry. Nestled among the Babingtonites are a few small Quartz crystals.
click on image
for larger view
BAR5-02
Barite $35 SOLD
North of Butte, Silver Bow Co., Montana
4.6 cm x 3.7 cm x 1.7 cm
Barite (BaSO4) from Montana is not that commonly available. This specimen of chunky crystals up to 1.6 cm on an edge was formerly in the collection of Roni and Bill Plavac, and comes with their label. The crystals are sharply formed and have a good luster; I had to angle the specimen away from reflections or the photo would have been saturated. The crystals have tan and brown inclusions which make them look a bit like blocks of wood.
BAR5-5 Barite $60 SOLD
Hammam-Zriba Mine, Hammam-Zriba, Djebel Guebli, Tunisia
7.3 cm x 6.7 cm x 5.5 cm; Barite crystals to 4.5 cm
A large, visually striking cluster of sword-shaped white Barites with iron-stained tips from northeastern Tunisia.
click on image
for larger view
BPW9-8 Barite on Petrified Wood (A. Arizonicum) $25 SOLD
Petrified Wood Ranch, Puerco Ridge, Navajo Co., Arizona
8.3 cm x 4 cm x 2.4 cm
Feathery white Barite (BaSO4) sits in a cluster atop a chunk of petrified wood from Araucaria Arizonicum, a conifer that is the Arizona state fossil. The Barite fluoresces cream color under both LWUV and SWUV. This specimen was collected by Ken Gochenour a couple of years ago.
click on image
for larger view
MH9-1 Barnesite (TL), Hewettite and Metahewettite (TL) $48 SOLD
Cactus
Rat Mine, Cisco, Yellow Cat District
(W. part of Thompsons District), Grand Co., Utah
9.5 cm x 4.5 cm x 2.7 cm
I believe that the Barnesite (Na2[V2O6|V4O10] · 3H2O) crystals are the brightest red ones, as in the center of the right-hand photo; the Metahewettite (Ca[V2O6|V4O10] · 3H2O) crystals are the lighter copper-colored ones, and the Hewettite (Ca[V2O6|V4O10] · 9H2O) are the chocolate brown crystals. But these species are very similar, and I'm just going off the descriptions in mindat.org. Certainly there's enough going on in this specimen to provide hours of exploration if you have a loupe or a microscop
click on image
for larger view
image on right is 7 x 6 mm
BEMEN9-1 Bementite on Rhodochrosite $35 SOLD
N'Chwaning II Mine, Kalahari Manganese Field, South Africa
2.9 cm x 2.1 cm x 2.5 cm
Sparkly balls of pink Rhodochrosite, MnCO3 are accented by fibrous-looking, tan Bementite, Mn5Si4O10(OH)6. Under a microscope, the Bementite looks more crusty and less fibrous, and some of the Rhodochrosite is seen to have a deeper color reminiscent of the Olmiite/Poldervaartite that comes from this mine. Bementite was named for Clarence Sweet Bement [1843-1923] in 1887. Bement was extremely interested in the minerals of Franklin, NJ (the type locality for Bementite), and he assembled the finest mineral collection of his time in the US. Eventually he sold it to J. P. Morgan, who gave it to the American Museum of Natural History. The collection required two railroad cars to bring it to New York!
click on image
for larger view
BIRN9-1 Birnessite on Calcite $22 SOLD
300'
level, Gold Hill
Mine, Clifton District
Deep Creek Mts, Tooele Co., Utah
5 cm x 4 cm x 4.2 cm
Birnessite, ((Na,Ca)0.5(Mn4+,Mn3+)2O4· 1.5H2O), here seen coating an otherwise pretty little Calcite (CaCO3) stalactite, is certainly one of the ugliest of ugly minerals. Yet it plays some important roles in nature: it is present in bacterially-precipitated manganese oxides, marine manganese nodules and the "desert varnish" that forms over rain-starved soils. It is also a frequent pseudomorphing agent. On this specimen, it coats the Calcite and adds a few arborescent crystal forms of its own.
click on image
for larger view
BISM8-1
Bismuthinite $55 SOLD
Brosso Mine, Cálea, Léssolo, Canavese District
Torino Province, Piedmont, Italy
5 cm x 5.5 cm x 3 cm
An aggregate of shiny metallic Bismuthinite (Bi2S3) crystals from a one-time find around 1950 in the Pyrite mines of Brosso. When photographing this for the website, I unintentionally shot two photos from slightly different angles, so for fun, I tried pairing them into a 3-D image and it worked! If you want to see the 3D version, click here: 3D
click on image
for larger view
BOBI9-1 Bobierrite $35 SOLD
Iron Mine, Kovdor Massif, Kola Peninsula
Murmanskaja Oblast', Northern Region, Russia
2.6 cm x 3.6 cm x 2.5 cm; largest crystal = 1.1 cm
Bobierrite (Mg3(PO4)2·8H2O) is another mineral that forms in guano or fossil deposits. The shiny gray fan of flat-lying crystals in the center of the photo seems too pretty to be associated with guano or fossils, however!e to reveal the details.
click on image
for larger view
BOUL9-1 Boulangerite $44 SOLD
Concepción del Oro, Mun. de Concepción del Oro, Zacatecas, Mexico
6 cm x 4 cm x 5.5 cm
Wirey Boulangerite Pb5Sb4S11 richly covers one end of this mineral specimen.
click on image
for larger view
BOUR9-2 Bournonite $48 SOLD
Mure
Mine, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France
1.6 cm x 2.1 cm x 1 cm
Bournonite, PbCuSbS3 is a relatively rare copper sulfosalt, best known for forming distinctive "cogwheels" as evidenced in the two photos above. The cogwheels are due to contact twinning or polysynthetic twinning. The cogwheels on this specimen are not as distinct as in the previous specimen from Bolivia, but the luster is much brighter.
click on image
for larger view
click on image
for larger view
BRAZ8-1
Brazilianite (DT) $650 SOLD
Telírio claim, Linópolis, Divino das Laranjeiras
Doce valley, Minas Gerais, Brazil
6.6 cm x 6.2 cm x 3.7 cm
One huge crystal of Brazilianite (NaAl3[(OH)2|PO4]2) with sharply defined, glossy faces. The bottom portion of the crystal is actually terminated, as seen in the lower right photo, making this a doubly-terminated floater crystal. Portions of the crystal fluoresce yellow under SWUV.
click on images
for larger view
image on right is 11 x 11 mm
BREW9-1 Brewsterite $22 SOLD
Whitesmith Mine, Strontian, North West Highlands, Scotland, UK (TL)
6.6 cm x 2 cm x 3.7 cm; largest crystal ~ 3 mm
Brewsterite-Sr, (Sr,Ba,Ca)[Al2Si6O16] · 5H2O, is an uncommon zeolite. This specimen has seams running throughout it with crystals tucked into the spaces. The Whitesmith Mine is an open cut barite-lead-zinc-silver mine, and the Scottish village of Strontian is the type locality for the species. Strontian is an old mining district which gave its name to the chemical element Strontium - not the other way around, as I had always assumed! And yes, it is also the type locality for Strontianite.
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