Gold (5.75 grams) (ex Madrid Collection)

Item Description

At first glance, this piece might just look like a beautiful "wire"-esque group of rich yellow color native Gold from Idaho, but under close inspection, one can see that it is finely crystallized with gorgeous dodecahedrons, octahedrons, tetrahexahedrons, simple cube faces and even some trapezohedrons. It's just marvelous to view under the microscope. Specimens from this locality are among the most attractive from anywhere in the state, and this eye-catching thumbnail has lots of character and "depth" for a smaller specimen. I had a lot of fun viewing it under the microscope, but you can clearly see with the naked eye that this is high quality Gold with good luster and strong color. The piece comes from the collection of Helen and Raul Madrid. In the 1947 report, Geology and ore deposits of the Boise Basin, Idaho: U.S. {Geological Survey Bulletin 944-C} A. L. Anderson described the structural setting of the Belshazzar as follows: "The Belshazzar mine is about centrally located within the "porphyry belt," and dikes of quartz monzonite porphyry, rhyolite porphyry, and lamprophyre are exposed in the underground workings as well as on the surface. The lode filling varies considerably in its composition from place to place, but most of it is a composite admixture of sulfide seams and nests cut and penetrated and in part included in younger seams and lenses of quartz, which also contains an essentially contemporaneous assemblage of pyrite, arsenopyrite, scattered small grains and tufts of bismuth and antimony minerals, dolomitic carbonate, and free gold".