FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Tobi]

This Land in the west with its many large cities and coal mines has been the engine of Germany’s economy for a long time. Besides the giant coal deposits, there are also many mineral-rich areas like Sauerland, Siegerland or the northern Eifel Mountains, where both ore minerals for industrial use and fine specimens for collectors were found.

[Tobi]

Pyromorphite in vivid green colour from the northern Eifel Mountains:

[Jordi Fabre]

A humble beauty from North Rhine-Westphalia

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

In the following i will show minerals from the Westphalian part of the Siegerland. This well known source of classic mineral specimens is divided into a Westphalian and a Palatinian part (there is a very small Hessian one too but minerals from there are something for the local cracks...). Except Käusersteimel (with its fine copper minerals) and Wolf/Herdorf (Rhodochrosite and copper crystals) most of the famous mines lied in the Westphalian Siegerland. One can say that there are not many places in Germany that minerals are so sought after and highly priced as the Siegerland classics (just Freiberg and some other districts in the Erzgebirge). No matter what it is, a simple white dolomite, a humble rhodo, a galena or a pyromorphite - it´ll bring good money.

Let´s start with the Gosenbach district. The main mine (with the consolidated smaller ones) was Storch & Schöneberg. Mineral specimens from that mine are classics but not that common in the collections. It was strictly forbidden to take out specimens from the mine so that people who want to do so had to pick small samples. That´s why especially larger samples are quite rare.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

The Müsen district is probably the most famous one in the Siegerland. Mines like Stahlberg or Victoria are known all over the world.

[Tobi]

Wonderful Gosenbach galena and dolomite - wow!!!

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

The next mine i want to put the focus on is Pfannenberger Einigkeit near Salchendorf. Galena, millerite, siderite, rock crystal in museum quality specimens are the Pfannenberg classics.

[Tobi]

This thread started with a galena specimen - here are more North Rhine-Westphalian galenas from my collection:

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Seems galena abounds in Westphalia...

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Bautenberg near Wilden is another well-known Siegerland mine. Most popular minerals concern stibnite crystals aggregates up to 2 cm on siderite or quartz, oddly etched galena cubes and the much sought after brown pyromorphite crystals, very similar to the Bad Ems specimens. Further more Bautenberg was one of the first world-wide occurences of ullmannite. Johann Christoph Ullmann collected the ullmannite specimens ("Nickelspießglanzerz") in April 1810.

[Tobi]

We had so many samples of galena from this Land in the recent posts, this new acquisition in my collection should be mentioned, too:

[James Jones]

My first mission is to find a Galena sample, Seems to be the most common in NRW :D

Nice samples here, are they all in your personal collection and found yourself? I ask as some seem to be very old (as in discovered date :P) judging by the labels?

[Tobi]

[Tobi]

Another specimen from NRW - yellow eisenkiesel quartz with white calcite:

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Hi,

all the specimens uploaded by me are in my own collection. So is the following Siegerland classic.

Cheers
Andreas