Cubanites suite (classic locale)

Item Description

A fine 5-piece deal from the famous copper-gold Henderson No. 2 Mine, source of the world's finest Cubanite specimens, a Cu-Fe-sulfide. The two single crystals, to 1.7 cm, have bright iridescent bronze-brown metallic lustre and classic sharp twinning. The 2nd largest piece has sections of adjacent cubanite crystals, to 1.6 cm, resting on matrix covered with glassy calcite crystals. One side of the smallest matrix specimen, 3.9 cm, has cubanite twins next to a field of glassy flattened calcite rhombs and the other side has more cubanite crystals, including a cute 4 mm elongated hexagonal sixling barrel. The largest piece is a typical hefty ore specimen with mainly brilliant metallic-gray Sphalerite and brassy magnetic Pyrrhotite with lesser amounts of Chalcopyrite and Pyrite. The mine opened in 1960. Crystals thought to be Pyrite were not identified as Cubanite until 1974. Never abundant, specimens trickled out until the mine closed in 1988. See the 1983 Mineralogical Record article in Vol. 14, No. 3. A highly representative and uncommon set of classic cubanite crystals with calcite and ore matrix from a family collection in Quebec.