Natural White Baryte from Androvo, Bulgaria 330g

A plate covered edge to edge in tabular baryte crystals, colorless to milky white and glassy where the faces are clean, stacked and crossing one another at all angles so the surface breaks into hundreds of small flat planes. The larger blades toward the center reach a good size and are transparent enough to see through; toward the edges the crystals grow smaller and cloudier. Along the left side and the top, a run of dark host rock studded with brassy pyrite grains gives the only color.

Baryte is barium sulfate, unusually dense for a light-colored mineral, and the Androvo mine in Bulgaria is collected for exactly this tabular habit. Untreated. At 3 to 3.5 on the Mohs scale it is soft, so this is a cabinet piece, and the flat 30mm profile makes it easy to stand upright or lay in a case.

Natural white baryte, Androvo mine, Bulgaria, single piece.