1.5" Galena Crystal with Druzy Quartz - Rogerley Mine, England

The Rogerley Mine is located in the historic Weardale mining District of Northern England. First discovered in the early 1970s, the Rogerley Mine is the only mine in all of Britain to be worked on a commercial scale in the name of collecting crystallized mineral specimens. Since the summer of 1999, UK Mining Ventures has operated the Rogerley Mine on a seasonal basis, producing many fine, well crystallized specimens of green fluorite. Rogerley material is considered some of the finest fluorite in the world, and much of it has incredible fluorescent properties under both daylight and ultraviolet light.

Galena is a lead-based mineral and the primary ore of lead, and has been used for its lead content for thousands of years. Galena typically displays a gray metallic luster and forms cubes or octahedral crystals. The chemical composition of galena is PbS.

While galena will not pose a health hazard by sitting on the shelf or even from casual handling, we suggest washing hands following handling due to the mineral's lead content.

About Quartz

Quartz is the name given to silicon dioxide (SiO2) and is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust. Quartz crystals generally grow in silica-rich environments--usually igneous rocks or hydrothermal environments like geothermal waters--at temperatures between 100°C and 450°C, and usually under very high pressure. In either case, crystals will precipitate as temperatures cool, just as ice gradually forms when water freezes. Quartz veins are formed when open fissures are filled with hot water during the closing stages of mountain formation: these veins can be hundreds of millions of years old.