Galkhaite - sharp cubic xls (rare thallium sulfide)

Item Description

Lustrous, dark blood-red to metallic galkhaite cubes to 2 mm are scattered on the gray, drusy quartz-covered matrix from the famous Getchell Mine of Nevada. The large cube and others are pristine, with a few others being bruised or dinged. Galkhaite is a very rare cesium, thallium, mercury sulfide with a few other metals thrown into the pot (see http://www.mindat.org/min-1643.html). There are very few crystallized thallium species! This is perhaps the most beautiful. This piece is probably from small finds in the 1970s stashed by the mine geologist and sold off in the late 1990s. They were found in a deep level of the mine and few were saved. NOT ON THE MARKET, except for that small lot. A piece like this, at Tucson around 1998-1999 when I myself had many of that pocket he saved, would have been priced around $300-400. They were snapped up then, and few have ever turned up again for sale since that time.