Ferberite

Item Description

Here we have a hard to find full cabinet sized specimen of Ferberite from the famous Tasna Mine in Southern Bolivia. This species was sometimes previously referred to as "Wolframite", which was supposed to be an intermediary species between Ferberite and Hubnerite, but has since been discredited. This specimen was mined in 2000 and is one of the best examples in this size range that we've seen from the locality. It is loaded with dozens of fine quality, sharp, lustrous, jet-black bladed crystals measuring up to 2.8 cm long, sitting atop grey bladed Arsenopyrite matrix, with minor metallic golden Marcasite/Pyrite. The piece is in very good shape, with only a few minor imperfections I can see with the naked eye. It's very hard to get fine quality, undamaged cabinet sized of Ferberite from any locality these days, especially Tasna as the miners do not take care of the crystals, so they're almost always dinged or cleaved. On top of that, the price of tungsten can cause superb crystallized piece to be thrown into the crusher and destroyed for the mere value of their ore. You just don't see these very often anymore, and nothing good has come out of Tasna in several years. Priced in the inventory at $3,750.