Fluorite on Molybdenite (circa 1950s, rare combination)

Item Description

This is a large and significant plate of Molybdenite and Fluorite associated together, and surprisingly it is from the Tae Hwa tungsten mine in South Korea. It represents one of the best and largest examples of Molybdenite from this mine we have seen, in terms of size - but the combination is so surprising that we had to look it up. When we bought the collection in Germany, we assumed this was from China, without looking it up in his catalog...perhaps an old, old specimen from a find we had not seen. However, it is much older, likely from the 1940s-1950s era of moly mining in Korea here, when such things were known to come out. Kurt also had a large Korean suite, he went to great pains to assemble over decades. The big plate is almost entirely covered in shiny gray, pseudohexagonal Molybdenite crystals along with totally transparent, sea-green Fluorite cubes. There are literally dozens of gray, metallic Molybdenite plates averaging 1.5 cm across and 3 to 5 mm in thickness that are accented by at least two dozen completely transparent, sea-green Fluorite cubes. The matrix is sparkly "ore" material and consists of abundant, disseminated metallic, brassy yellow Pyrite mixed with metallic gray Molybdenite for a great textural contrast. The piece is big, showy, impressive, intellectually and historically interesting, and we hesitate to even begin to assign a value to this treasure from the Hefendehl collection.