Sperrylite (rare Canadian locality)

Item Description

When it comes to specimens of the great rare platinum arsenide species, Sperrylite, most people probably think of the excellent pieces from the Talnakh Deposit in Russia, but the Broken Hammer Deposit in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada has produced some excellent specimens in its own right. The Broken Hammer Deposit is owned by Wallbridge Mining and collectors were fortunate enough to see some specimens make their way out of the mine in recent years. Although the crystals might be smaller than their Russian counterparts, they are still excellent quality, showing fine crystallization and brilliant bright metallic silvery luster. This piece hosts a roughly 2.5 mm crystal of Sperrylite featuring well-defined cubic, octahedral and dodecahedral faces, with associated grey Quartz, muted green Epidote and metallic golden Chalcopyrite on matrix. We've photographed the Sperrylite with a Canon MP-E 65 mm macro lens to better illustrate the quality. A highly desirable example of this notably hard to find material.
From the collection Dr. Robert ("Rob") Bowell, a geochemist and adjunct professor in Geochemistry and Mineralogy at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Rob has a background in applied geology in tropical and deeply weathered terrains, he also has done mining consulting in the fields of due diligence, financial and technical audits, process chemistry, environmental geochemistry, environmental engineering and mineralogy.