Description
A beautiful specimen from the Reiche Zeche ("Rich Pit") with honey yellow Fluorite with few sparkling Quartz crystals. The Fluorite is sharp with good translucency and a resinous luster and luckily very few dings. The Quartz crystals are tiny and show Cumberland habit. The Reiche Zeche is besides the Alte Elisabeth, one of the two important shafts of the Silver mining district of the Himmelfahrt Fundgrube with an incredible mining history dating back to 1168. Today it is the last open mine in the Freiberg mining district. Mining was abandoned in 1968 due to the lack of ore reserves; however, the mine has served as a teaching mine for students of the Mining Academy in Freiberg Saxony since 1919, and today, is also accessible as a tourist mine since 1991, shortly after the German reunification.