Wulfenite (classic material)

Item Description

The famous Wulfenites from Los Lamentos are different from most other examples of the species you'll find. This is due to the fact that a good number of the Wulfenite crystals you'll find in nature form are fairly thin tabular (and often brittle) examples. This is certainly not the case for the iconic specimens from the Erupción Mine (Ahumada Mine) in Mexico, which are some of the thickest and most durable Wulfenites in the world. This piece features several gorgeous, thick, fine quality, beautiful saturated orange colored crystals measuring up to 1.5 cm, sitting on iron-coated Calcite matrix. There are some contacted crystals on the piece, so it's not completely pristine, but there are several unblemished crystals on the piece. My favorite aspect of the piece is that some of the crystals are quite GEMMY, which is not common for the locality as they tend to be only translucent, but I can see a few on this piece that are quite clear when backlit.
This piece comes from the personal collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman, the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. Dave is now retired from mining, but he worked for decades in various mines underground in Colorado, as a miner, mechanic, engineer, shift boss and foreman. His biggest claim to fame is that he was the foreman and the primary person in charge of mining and specimen recovery at the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado in the 1970s alongside his son-in-law, Rich Kosnar. This project what was the FIRST ever operation for specimen recovery at this historic locality. A full-page photograph of Dave can be seen mining underground at the Sweet Home in on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".