Tennantite epitaxial on Chalcopyrite & Sphalerite on Quartz ex. Barlow

Item Description

Classic, very showy and unusual combination material from this famous locale. Bright metallic to matte-finish tennanite-tetrahedrite epitaxically coats well-placed, very sharp to subhedral, compound chalcopyrite and sphalerite crystals to 1.4 cm on the striking, sculptural, upright quartz crystal matrix. The rabbit ears pair of terminated quartz crystals at the top is a super accent! You can see the chalcopyrite and sphalerite on some of the crystals and especially on the broken crystals. A similar specimen is figured on Page 602 of the El Cobre Mine article in the September-October, 2016 Mineralogical Record Mexico Special Issue VII. An excellent example of the combination species with a fine provenance. It was formerly in the John Barlow Collection # 2654. These came out around 1970.