Barite (ex Dave Bergman Collection)

Item Description

This specimen is about 50 years old, as it resembles other Barites from Hartsel that I have seen which were found in the 1960's. This area has produced some of the best known "blue" Barites from Colorado, and these specimens are sought after by Colorado collectors. Here we have a nice dcent piece featuring sharp, layered lustrous, bladed, soft blue color translucent Barite crystals free of matrix. It is contacted on one side, and has a few spots of slight roughness, but it still presents well. This piece was collected by and came from the personal collection of Dave Bergman. Dave is a Colorado miner (the foreman and primary person in charge of recovering specimens at the famous Sweet Home Mine near Alma, Colorado during the late 1970s) and the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. See Dave's photo mining at the Sweet Home on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".