Siderite on Quartz (ex Dave Bergman Collection)

Item Description

According to the entry on mindat.org, the Morro Velho Mine is, "the world's oldest continually producing gold mine, started in 1725". Despite all the gold that has been mined from this locality, it's probably best known for its beautiful Siderite and Quartz combinations. This miniature sized specimen is a showy representation of this beautiful material featuring several highly compressed rhombic crystals of Siderite measuring up to 1.7 cm with that classic greenish-golden hue sitting atop very gemmy, colorless, prismatic Quartz crystals. The piece is in decent shape overall, but it's not 100% pristine, as there are a few imperfections here and there. It's still very aesthetic and presents well as you can see from the photos. The specimen was collected in the mid 1970s. From the collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman. Dave is now retired, but among other things, he was the foreman and primary person in charge of recovering specimens at the famous Sweet Home Mine near Alma, Colorado during the late 1970s. He is also the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. See Dave's photo mining at the Sweet Home on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".