4" Botryoidal Orpiment on Quartz and Sparkling Pyrite - Peru

This is a beautiful specimen of quartz crystals that formed in association with botryoidal orange orpiment and pyrite crystals, collected from Peru. It was collected from the Palomo Mine in Peru. It comes with an acrylic display stand.

About Orpiment

Orpiment is a bright orange to yellow arsenic sulfide mineral. Its name is derived from the latin phrase auripigmentum, meaning “gold pigment”. It is frequently found as a decay byproduct and in association with another arsenic mineral, realgar. Orpiment crystals are commonly found in dense groupings containing small, prismatic crystals, often with chisel-shaped or triangular pyramidal terminations.

Orpiment contains a significant amount of the poisonous mineral arsenic. While it’s not going to pose a health hazard sitting on a shelf, it’s recommended that you wash your hands after handling it.

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.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Quartz, Pyrite & Orpiment
LOCATION
Palomo Mine, Castrovirreyna Province, Huancavelica Department, Peru
SIZE
4 x 3.2"
CATEGORY
ITEM
#187339