Cassiterite

Item Description

Cornwall was a major tin producing district, and a lot of that tin ore came from Cassiterite. As a matter of fact, the species Cassiterite gets its name from the Greek word "Cassiterides", which means Tin Islands and was used in reference to islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe. Some people have suggested that Cornwall might have been the "islands" in question, though nobody can say for certain specifically where Cassiterides lies. This piece is a very attractive thumbnail labeled as coming from the South Crofty Mine in Cornwall and features sharp, lustrous, well-formed, dark reddish-brown crystals measuring up to 2.1 cm, with a tiny bit of attached mica on the back. The piece is in good shape, but there is a broken crystal near the center of the piece, so it's not unblemished. Comparing this piece to the others I've seen online from the South Crofty locality, this is certainly one of the best examples in terms of euhedral crystals, so don't miss out. This locality dates back to the late 1590s according to the entry on mindat.org, and the Cornish Metals Exploration company is still operating it today, so we might still see some nice Cassiterites coming out in the future.
From the collection Dr. Robert ("Rob") Bowell, a geochemist and adjunct professor in Geochemistry and Mineralogy at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Rob has a background in applied geology in tropical and deeply weathered terrains, he also has done mining consulting in the fields of due diligence, financial and technical audits, process chemistry, environmental geochemistry, environmental engineering and mineralogy.