Detailed information
Species
Acanthite, Nickeline
Dimensions
25 x 38 x 20
mm
Locality
Medenec (Kupferberg), Klášterec nad Ohrí Krušné Hory Mts, Ústí Region Bohemia, Czech Republic
Condition
No recorded repairs
This excellent and rare specimen of crystallised Acanthite with Nickeline is from M?d?nec in the 'st' nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic; a copper mining district that worked a copper skarn deposit. Skarn, a Scandinavian name for 'rubbish', describes where an igneous intrusion has contacted a carbonate horizon, hence causing metamorphism adjacent to the contact. The Acanthite, a low temperature silver sulphide, forms intergrown, silvery lead-grey crystals which form a 1 cm thick and 4 cm long cylindrical band, folded around two sides of the specimen. Individual Acanthite crystals are also dotted over the inner core of micro-Quartz encrusted chocolate-bronze Nickeline, a nickel arsenide. An interesting mix of these silver and nickel species from M?d?nec.
