Quartz "casts" after Anhydrite

Item Description

A hefty and eye-catching large cabinet sized specimen from the famous Cement Creek area that produced some of the lesser known but beautiful Quartz "casts" from anywhere in Colorado. This piece features several attractive epimorphs of "sugary" Quartz replacing Anhydrite with additional drusy Quartz spheroidal groups on massive Quartz matrix. Beautiful aesthetics and very eye-catching. The largest "cast" measures 2.2 cm across, and the largest Quartz "ball" measures 6.0 cm across. No real damage that I can see with the naked eye, except around the periphery where the piece was removed from the pocket wall. This piece was collected by Robert Stoufer in 2009. It should be noted that for years people have written that these epimorphs / "casts" were replacements of Quartz after Barite. I always contested that this couldn’t be the case, and that they were most likely after Anhydrite. Finally, it appears that somebody else is on board with me as I read from Bill Dameron on mindat that "Dr. Virgil Lueth, New Mexico Tech, concludes from studies (as-yet unpublished paper 4/2011) that these and all San Juan quartz epimorphs apparently after barite are in fact after anhydrite". This makes sense Barite is a rather inert species, so anything caustic enough to dissolve Barite, would also most likely dissolve away any Quartz as well. PLEASE NOTE: This specimen weighs 1,192 grams (over 2.5 pounds), so an additional shipping charge will be required. Please feel free to contact us before bidding if you have any questions or concerns.