Description
This rather large and very typical Saxon ore specimen is covered over and over with black, slightly reddish Pyrargyrite crystals with a nice metallic luster. They are associated with tombac-colored sharp Argentopyrite crystals. The latter being a fairly rare representative of the Silver ores or “Silber Kies” as they were called by German miners in the past. Good specimens that have both species such as this one are now very rare, especially because the mines around Schlema-Hartenstein were abandoned in the late 1990s. The dumps have been reclaimed and collecting is strictly prohibited.