Sphalerite (gemmy crystals)

Item Description

There are many sulfide minerals in the world, but most of them are metallic and opaque. With that said, Sphalerite is one of the few transparent sulfides out there, and for many years we've seen superb quality gem crystals coming out of the Madan Ore Field in Bulgaria. You can find this material labeled sometimes as "Cleophane" which is an archaic term for gem quality yellow, green or colorless Sphalerite and was once a valid species, but is now defined as a variety of Sphalerite. This piece is loaded with several groups of sharp, lustrous, well-formed complex crystal groups of Sphalerite measuring up to about 1.1 cm across sitting on fairly cavernous / "hollow" Quartz matrix. The Sphalerites show an amazing glowing green hue when backlit, and most of them are very gemmy. It's incredibly difficult to photograph this material, and this one looks much better in person. This color is highly desirable for Sphalerite, and is not commonly seen for the species around the world, especially in such tremendously fine crystallized examples.