Pyrite (rare locality)

Item Description

The Allegra collection has a large and important suite of Dalnegorsk minerals. Although Dalnegorsk is one of the richest and most important polymetallic deposits in the world, with a large number of mineral species present as well as industrial ores for mining (sadly, most minerals were thrown in the bins as ore too, probably), it seems strangely short in the common species, pyrite. Why is this? We do not know, but it is true that there is a very small number of fine pyrite specimens from Dalnegorsk compared to other sulfides. This particularly beautiful piece has important crystals for the locality, with unusually curved faces - that is not your imagination if you were seeing curvature in the normally flat faces of the cube! The crystal is 6 x 6 x 5 cm in size, and perfectly pristine, sitting beautifully in matrix. An important specimen, and also an oldtimer Fran purchased in the early 2000s. He got it from me; and I in turn got it from a well known Russian at the time, named Vadim, who was selling his old personal collection in a back room of the Executive Inn Hotel at Tucson, and who said he obtained it in the 1980s and held it until that time as his collection.