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Cassiterite Twin Fluorapatite Cast

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PDM949257

Cassiterite Twin Fluorapatite Cast

Classic Locality

Description Tabs

Description
Locality: 
La Villeder, Le Roc Saint-André, Morbihan, Brittany, France
Class: 
Crystal Group/Cluster
Size Range: 
Small cabinet (7-10 cm)
Size: 
8.6 × 7.6 × 4.7 cm
Weight: 
778.00gr
Description

Classic among European classics are the cassiterites from La Villeder. This old one is a group of twinned crystals, with at least two contact twins, of brown caramel colour and good lustrous striated faces, with minor white quartz and muscovite. Typical for this locality are the hexagonal holes that perforate these cassiterites and correspond to fluorapatite crystals that were completely dissolved in this specimen. Interestingly, this specimen has rests of a blued paper that correspond to an ancient label. There are also two series of numbers written directly on a face, where “189x” and “2..” are perfectly readable. The first number, 189x, could correspond perfectly with the year of the discovery, so late XIX Century. In any case this specimen was found before 1916, when la Villeder mine was closed and flooded.

Ex Jozef Cosemans specimen.

Jozef Cosemans (1934-2012) was the Chief Metallurgist at the Zinc smelter of Vieille-Montagne in Balen (Belgium).

Combine specimens to reduce shipping costs!.

Mineral Data
What's on the rock

Cassiterite

Formula: 
SnO2
Strunz: 
4.DB.05
Crystal System: 
Tetragonal
Hardness: 
6.0 - 7.0

Fluorapatite

Formula: 
Ca2Ca3(PO4)3F
Strunz: 
8.BN.05
Crystal System: 
Hexagonal
Hardness: 
5.0
Streak: 
White
Type Locality: 
Sauberg Mine, Ehrenfriedersdorf, Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany

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