Calcite ("butterfly" twins)

Item Description

This piece came labeled as coming from the "Weldon Mine", Quijotoa, Pima County Arizona. Now Calcite is reported from Weldon HILL in Maricopa County, while there are also several localities for Calcite in the Quijotoa Mining District in Pima County, but I can't find a listing that incorporates both "Weldon" and "Quijotoa" together with Calcite. If anybody out there has some additional information as to the exact locality of this piece, please let us know. This lovely small cabinet specimen features a pair of sharp, well-formed, translucent, white "butterfly"-shaped twins of Calcite measuring up to 5.1 cm across associated with many sharp, "dogtooth" scalenohedra of Calcite on matrix. The piece has a very light reddish-brown tinge in areas from what is believed to be iron oxide. A few nicks can be seen here and there, but this twinning habit of Calcite is not typically seen from Arizona and it would certainly make a nice addition to any worldwide Calcite collection or a suite of US / Arizona minerals. Valued at $850 in the inventory.