Description
This is an attractive specimen with sharp Sphalerite crystals with faint hopper growth, associated with rounded Galena and sparkling Pyrite. The Japanese Oppu Mine is a general term for 27 mines with a centuries-old history in the O Shirakami mountain range in Aomori Prefecture. It started out as a silver mine in the 17th century before it was worked for copper in the 18th century, for Lead, Zink and Cadmium in the 19th century. It was closed in 1979, and since the 1980s worked as artisanal mine to recover banded Rhodochrosite for lapidary purposes.