Ferberite (twins) on matrix

Item Description

Ferberite is a fairly well-known iron tungstate mineral, but not often found in fine crystallized examples outside of a few world localities. I think it's quite safe to say that the finest twinned Ferberite crystals in the world come from the Tazna Mine in Bolivia. This full cabinet-sized piece is a good quality example featuring fine, sharp, lustrous, jet-black, bladed crystals of Ferberite with classic, "butterfly" twinning along the a (100) face sitting on matrix. There are actually multiple twins on the piece, the main twin immediately catches the eye, but there's a smaller twin that is partially buried on the lower part of the piece as well. Sparkling silvery micro crystals of Arsenopyrite and little gemmy colorless Quartz crystals are also present for a nice touch. I must stress that there are some areas of damage on the crystals, the piece is not perfect, so please keep this in mind when bidding. 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 twinned crystals are definitely the most highly sought after 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. You don't see many pieces like this one from Tazna, because matrix pieces are fairly rare, so if you're in the market for a twinned Ferberite, don't miss out as these are few and far between. 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.