Ferberite (twinned group)

Item Description

Here is a great small cabinet sized twinned crystal group 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" or "V" twinning of Ferberite along the a (100) face. This piece is a good quailty, sharp, lustrous, jet-black twinned crystal group. It has an attractive blocky and bladed form, and despite a crack in one of the larger crystals, it's very complete on the display side. Because of the heavy, brittle nature of Ferberite, it is very difficult for these twins to stay on matrix due to the crude mining techniques used by Bolivian miners. It is still a good display piece and a larger sized specimen 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.