Ferberite ("butterfly" twin)

Item Description

A wonderful classic twinned crystal of Ferberite from the world-famous Tasna Mine in southern Bolivia. The piece was mined in 2008. These pieces have been found for many years, but recently some of the best twins have found their way to the market. It should be noted that Ferberite was sometimes previously referred to as "Wolframite", which was supposed to be an intermediary species between Ferberite and Hubnerite, but has since been discredited, but you will still see some of these pieces labeled as "Wolframite" in older collection. This piece features the classic, "butterfly" twinning of Ferberite along the a (100) face with sharp, lustrous, well-formed faces. The piece is actually composed of two separate Ferberite twins which have grown together to create a showy and three-dimensional specimen. It's a little rough in areas and cleaved on the back, but the vast majority of the pieces we've seen from this mine are badly damaged, so this one is MUCH better than the countless hundreds of bad ones we've seen over the years. Twinned crystals from Bolivia are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain in recent years as the price of Tungsten ore has driven the miners to throw nearly all the Ferberite into the crusher, causing thousands of specimens to be lost forever. These twins are definitely the most highly sought after crystal habit from this locality. This piece is one of the better formed Ferberite twins that I have offered in the auctions in a while.