Jamesonita
Jamesonita is a mineral with formula Pb₄FeSb₆S₁₄, in the Sulfosales group. This specimen comes from Mina Quiruvilca, Distrito de Quiruvilca, La Libertad, Perú.
Description
Thumbnail with fine acicular crystals of bright metallic jamesonite on a white barite matrix. A beautiful piece under magnification.
About Jamesonita
Jamesonite is a lead, iron and antimony sulfosalt, classically known as «Feather Ore» or «Federerz» for its extremely fine, hair-like acicular crystals. Peruvian specimens are especially appealing when the needles grow isolated or in small «urchins» on a white barite or quartz matrix.
About the locality
Mina Quiruvilca, from the Quechua «Sacred Tooth», is a major Andean mining district at about 3,800 m. After the formal operation collapsed in 2017, it entered a legal limbo marked by informal mining, conflict and poor safety. Fine collector specimens belong to an earlier period and are now increasingly scarce.
Technical data
- Catalogue No.
- 0678
- Composition
- Pb₄FeSb₆S₁₄
- Name
- Jamesonita
- Group
- Sulfosales
- Category
- Meritum Persé
- Matrix
- Barita
- Mine
- Mina Quiruvilca
- District / Municipality
- Distrito de Quiruvilca
- Province
- La Libertad
- Country
- Perú
- Size (cm)
- 3 x 3 x 2.5
- Etymology
- Named in honour of Robert Jameson, an influential (and somewhat obstinate) Scottish mineralogist who was a professor at the University of Edinburgh and had a very famous student: Charles Darwin. The relationship was disastrous. Darwin wrote in his autobiography that Jameson's lectures were so "incredibly boring" that they made him hate geology for years. Jameson was old-school—he believed all rocks formed in water ("Neptunism")—and refused to accept the new volcanic theories.
- Quality
- Buena
- Value trend
- Estable
Related specimens
- Barita — Perú
- Barita — Perú
- Cuarzo — Perú
- Jamesonita — Perú
- Oropimente — Perú
- Rodocrosita — Perú
- Rodocrosita — Perú
- Rodocrosita — Perú