Natural Cleiophane Green Sphalerite with Quartz Cluster Crystal from Bulgaria 35g

Two distinct halves make up this piece. On the right sits a group of cleiophane crystals, dark olive-green with a strong glassy shine and clear yellow-green translucency along the thinner edges, their faces stepped and sharply defined. To the left the piece opens into a broad wing of white sugary quartz, chalky and finely crystalline, with a scattering of small grey galena crystals sitting on it. The white spur runs well clear of the crystal group, which gives the green a clean background to sit against.

Cleiophane is sphalerite with very little iron in it, which is why the green comes through instead of the usual black. From the Bulgarian lead-zinc field in the Rhodope Mountains. Untreated. Sphalerite is 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale, galena 2.5 and quartz 7. At 51mm long it is a small specimen with a lot going on across its length.

Natural cleiophane green sphalerite with quartz, Bulgaria, single piece.