PERU22-01
Enargite Coated With Pyrite, and Pyrite
Julcani Dist., Angaraes Prov., Huancavelica Dept., Peru
Small Cabinet, 8.0 x 4.5 x 4.5 cm
Ex. Dr. Art Soregaroli
$2,400.00 Payment Plan Available
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Enargite is rare in large crystals and even more rare in such robust thickness and length as we see here, known only from a few locations in the world. This sparkling display piece is made showier by the presence of coating of tiny, sparkling Pyrite crystals crowned by a lightning-shaped zigzag crystal of metallic pyrite, perched atop! The cluster of large, bladed prismatic Enargite crystals, to two inches, is completely dusted with with the tiny glistening Pyrites. It is a beautiful display specimen anyways but we consider it so much more collectible with the large, 3.5 cm, unusually formed and very bright single Pyrite crystal at one growing between a "Y" of the Enargites! It is an old specimen purchased by Ed Ruggiero when it came out in the mid-1970s (we were told this by Ed, although Soregaroli label does not note that) and is quite different than the typical "clean" gray-black crystals with matte luster we have seen from Peru since that time. It is a balanced, attractive specimen that displays Enargite at a size any previous collector of USA minerals would kill for when compared to Butte Montana material, which is typically the old standard. Art Soregaroli literally wrote the book, PERU – Paradise of Minerals! As both a collector and as a businessman in ore mining, he had extensive travel to the region in the time these were coming out, and was considered a specialist with a particularly good Peruvian subcollection (which we purchased in the early 2010s).