Quartz (doubly-terminated) included with sulfide / sulfosalt "needles" (ex Dr. Stephen Smale Collection)

Item Description

A classic and now hard to find specimen of the Quartz specimens included with an unknown acicular metallic sulfide or sulfosalt from the famous Yaogangxian Mine. This is a classic of the material featuring a few very sharp, well-formed, lustrous, GEM quality, colorless prismatic Quartz crystals which play host to silvery "needle"-like crystals of what is most likely, Boulangerite, Bertherite, Stibnite or Jamesonite. It's hard to know the identiy of the "needles" without analysis, and there has been some doubt about early reports from this mine that there were any bismuth-bearing sulfosalts originally. If I had to guess, I would say that these crystals are probably Bethierite or Stibnite, but it's impossible to know without being able to analyze them. The piece itself is notably aesthetic, and nearly a complete "floater" as it's nearly crystallized all the way around. As a matter of fact, if you look closely on the back of the piece, you can see that several of the Quartz crystals are doubly-terminated! Very attractive and seldom seen on the market now. This one is a very good piece of this elusive material, and valued in the inventory at $1,600. Ex Dr. Steven Smale Collection. Along with amassing one of the finest private mineral collections in the world, Steve is a renowned mathematician. His accomplishments include being awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 along with being the awarded the Wolf Prize in mathematics in 2007. You can read Steve's bio on the Mineralogical Record website ( https://mineralogicalrecord.com/labels.asp?colid=671&page=1 ) or on Wikipedia.