eCryptonite #032

The model used is a giant 44 cm specimen that contains a nice combination of Sphalerite, Pyrrhotite, Calcite and Quartz.

And it was found in 2nd Sovetskii Mine, Dalnegorsk, Dalnegorsk Urban District, Primorsky Krai, Russia

The size is 215x440x230 mm (27,4 kg)
In other words, a museum size specimen, in fact you would not see this big size even in almost no museums, and there are no one near this at Mindat.

It contains white chippy Calcite crystals, dark silver colored Sphalerite crystals, some small areas of golden colored Pyrrhotite crystals and small yellow coated buckets of Quartz crystals

My father drove to Russia for some few occasions 20-30 years ago to buy minerals. In fact, I found in his notes about this specimen that said the price, which was even much money back then, but I could not find the exact year.


Fun fact:
German geologist Ernst Friedrich Glocker discovered sphalerite in 1847, naming it based on the Greek word sphaleros, meaning "deceiving", due to the difficulty of identifying the mineral.

Dalnegorsk
Dalnegorsk is located all east coast of Russia, almost to the border of China and close to Japan. And it is known for a lot of nice minerals: https://www.mindat.org/loc-2635.html

The region is comprised of 9 different deposits, and The Verkhnee deposit was first developed in 1912.

For this specific mine, you can see the other minerals at Mindat:
https://www.mindat.org/loc-4640.html