FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

A mineral lover asked me recently a question that I found interesting. He want to know how would be the sharper crystal form from Rumanian Sylvanites. He always saw flat, "graphic" crystals, like the specimen photographed by Gail ( https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=4032#4032 ) on her report about the great Smithsonian Museum. He know that the Fiji ones are well formed, but he is not familiar with sharp crystals from Rumania.

I saw just one time a defined Sylvanite crystal (analyzed) from Rumania and I'm not sure if it exist much more. I publish here two photos, one of this Rumanian defined crystal and an other one of a classic "graphic" Rumanian Sylvanite crystals.

Some expert here are familiar with some other defined Rumanian Sylvanite crystals?

Jordi

[Joan Massagué]

I wonder about the same question. There is plenty of specimens with crystalline intergrowths lying flat on matrix, the typical "graphic ore" (Schift Erz) from Baia de Aries. I have also seen arborescent masses of quartz microcrystals entrapping small, heavily striated crystals of sylvanite, from the same locality. But in terms of shapely crystals, the only one that I know is in the Min. Rec. 13, p. 397 (1982) –the Gold Issue. It shows an Olaf Mendenbach photo of a rather sharp crystal to 6 mm, very rich in faces, from an unspecified Romanian locality. The specimen is attributed to the University of Heidelberg collection. Sándor Szakáll's book on Minerals of the carpathians illustrates just one graphic ore sylvanite specimen, that's all. I hope that other FMF readers will shed more light on this subject.

[Jordi Fabre]

Joan, thank you for your message.

I saw many specimens of Sylvanite in Rumania including the ones from the Gold museum in Brad: ( https://www.welcometoromania.ro/DN76/DN76_Brad_e.htm ) as well as other Rumanian museums, like the one in Baia Mare ( https://www.web2ro.com/BaiaMare/index5.htm or the Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca ( https://bioge.ubbcluj.ro/MuzeuMin/en/index.html ) , and what I can say is that in all my life I saw just one time a sharp crystal of Sylvanite from Rumania, the one of the photo, so I assume that it should be something very scarce.

Hopefully some other FMF reader can help.

Jordi