Detailed information
Species
Galena, Fluorite
Dimensions
57 x 93 x 57
mm
Locality
Heights Mine Westgate, Weardale Co. Durham, England
Condition
No recorded repairs
Everyone knows of Heights mine for its wonderful Fluorite specimens of many colours, but notably the emerald-green ones, but what about Galena. This super specimen is really unusual with wonderfully sharp cubo-octahedral Galena crystals, but with an extremely characteristic naturally etched surface texture. These crystals reach 1.7 cm across and sit upon a thin bed of small (2 to 3 mm) white to pale green etched Fluorite cubes on classic Heights mine ironstone matrix. This is extremely distinctive material. Most of the crystals are in perfect condition, but the largest crystal rising up from the top of the specimen has some cleavage damage to one edge. Unusually, this is not so obvious due to the other etched crystals and the consequent reflection of light at unusual angles.