Detailed information
Dimensions
0 x 0 x 0
mm
Locality
Järkvissle Sundsvall Västernorrland, Sweden
Condition
No recorded repairs
Herzenbergite is a very rare tin sulphide and a species which never occurs in nice visible crystals. In fact nearly all of its somewhat limited worldwide occurrences are as massive black patches in tin-bearing veinstone. Not surprisingly, one of the best ways to identify it, and to view it, is as a polished reflective surface like in this standard resin-mounted polished section. This type of sample requires a specialist optical microscope for reflected light study, under which the specific properties of this unusual mineral are apparent. Within the mount, a 1.8 x 1 cm long chip of rock is seen to contain four or five individual dark coloured grains, the longest to about 2 mm in length. The polished section has a ring of grey carbon surrounding the rock chip, indicating that it has also been analysed using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) but no analytical details are provided. This sample is from the famous Swedish occurrence at Järkvissle near Sundsvall, in Västernorrland, where Herzenbergite was found in a tin-rich pegmatite during the early 1990s.