Pyrite (rare locality specimen) (ex Dave Bergman Collection)

Item Description

Most people are familiar with the beautiful crystallized Copper specimens from the famous Chino Mine (Santa Rita Mine), which date back to the early 20th century. In more recent years this locality has become even more famous for producing dramatic Spinel-law twinned crystals of Copper. With that said, Pyrite is a hard to find mineral from the Chino Mine, and we've only seen a few of them over the years. This particular piece was mined in the 1980s and is a great example of these elusive and beautiful specimens. This piece is a sharp, well-formed, metallic, soft golden colored crystal showing a near 50/50 split of cubic and octahedral faces to form this beautiful near "floater" specimen. There are a few nicks, so the piece is not pristine, but if you collect sulfides or minerals of the southwestern United States, this is a great opportunity to get your hands on something that is virtually unseen in today's market. From the collection of legendary Colorado miner, Dave Bergman. Dave is now retired, but mined all over Colorado and was most famously the former the foreman and primary person in charge of recovering specimens at the famous Sweet Home Mine near Alma, Colorado during the late 1970s. Dave personally collected this specimen in the summer of 1978. See Dave's photo mining at the Sweet Home on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".