Ferberite (twin)

Item Description

Here is a great miniature sized twinned crystal of Ferberite 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 piece features the classic, "butterfly" twinning of Ferberite along the a (100) face. This piece is a good quailty, sharp, lustrous, jet-black twinned crystal. It has an attractive blocky form, and there are some minor botryoidal Marcasite "spheres" on the base of the specimen. It's fairly complete on the display side, but it's rough on the back where it detached from the pocket wall during the blast underground. Because of the heavy, brittle nature of Ferberite, it is very difficult for these twins to say on matrix due to the crude mining techniques used by Bolivian miners. It is still a good display piece of this rarely seen material. Twinned crystals from Bolivia have becoming increasingly difficult to obtain in recent years as the price of Tungsten ore has driven the miners to throw 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, and are unlike the specimens from well known localities such as Panasqueira, Portugal and Yaogangxian, China, which are just single blades.