FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[John Betts]

This reference describes the habit of galena found:

"As small concretionary nodules, it occurs disseminated through sand-stone at Kommern in the Eifel."

See: https:(/)(/)en(.)wikisource(.)org(/)wiki/Page(:)EB1911_-_Volume_11.djvu(/)417

Does not match the specimen.

[Montanpark]

Hi all,
i have visited the Mechernich mines several times in the past including the Kommern mines (for instance Gottessegen pit, and other old workings at the Griesberg hill). I seriously doubt that - if the specimen is galena at all - it comes from the Mechernich district. We used to go on field trips from Aachen RWTH univesirty almost every year from 1985 to 1998 and i found really nice materail, also had the opportunity to see lots of historic specimens from the district. Never seen anything even sligthly similar.
Cheers
Roger

[Montanpark]

- i forgot: the Kommern mines were closed long before the 1950s. The mines at the Mechernicher Bleiberg area - opposite side of the town of Mechernich - were open until 1957.

[Richard Arseneau]

It is hard to tell from a photograph, but for what it is worth the streak looks Lead-grey to me.

[Kevin Conroy]

[Joseph DOliveira]

Here is a hoppered galena from Canada, not quite as nice as either of the previously posted specimens.

[Deborah Deitsch-Perez]

cool, and thx. Anyone have a Bulgarian to post?

[Tobi]

[Gerhard Brandstetter]

Hi Mathias!
First congrats to your extraordinary rare and excellent Galena!
You found a needle in a haystack.........


Now it is time to solve the riddle:

99 % from Katerina coal mine in Radvanice, Czech Republic!!!!!!!!
A piity Mindat and Mineralienatlas show only single crystals...... https://www.mindat.org/gallery.php?loc=766&min=1641

I remember matrix specimen like yours from very few private czech collections and the mineral show in Turnov. Typical matrix and always very, very rare!
The Galena from this burning coal dump is always very shiny and fresh - no signs of weathering or decomposing. Also typical is the skeletal form - similar to the infamous synthetic bismuth crystals. In Radvanice we must say that this is anthropogenic material but not man made! Also characteristic for these Galenas is a very very slight radioactivity - like no other Galenas.

I visited Radvanice last July with Petr Cerny, who is a geologist from Prague. He told me something about it and showed me the locality. Totally recultivated now and not any chance to find anything...... So you can be sure to own an excellent specimen from a worldwide unique find - congrats!

[Mathias]

[Mathias]

[Matt_Zukowski]

Is there a reason why you could not use a heat test to see if it is bismuth? Bismuth melts at 271.4°C (520.5°F) which is a temperature that can be achieved in an ordinary oven.

[Montanpark]

[Tobi]

I would really wish for Mathias that the specimen from his original post was a natural galena for it would be a superb one. But I still have doubts: Am I the only one who thinks that these crystals on Mathias' specimen look "too perfect" to be natural galena with this kind of growth? Most "hoppered" galena crystals look weathered, they are often not complete or look distorted. But these look nearly perfect: A lot of them grew together on matrix, they are lustrous, have perfect right angles and look like a textbook version of the "hopper" growth. Really, I don't want to be offensive, but as a long-time galena collector I have never seen something like that. I still fear it could be man-made, maybe a lab-grown thing or slag.

But as I said before, and this is not (!) polemic: If it should really be natural galena, then Mathias is the proud owner of the world's best galena specimen of this growth form. I liked Gerhard's suggestion with the Katerina Coal Mine, but I don't agree, sorry: The "hoppered" galena crystals from that locality are mostly single crystals, and the also look weathered and are often not complete. If this specimen with its many perfectly grown and highly lustrous textbook crystals is really from the Katerina Mine, it would be a sensation. And it would be the same sensation from any other locality where such galena appeared ...

I would really love to see this riddle solved - not by photos but by a scientific analysis. Mathias, do you have any connection to a lab or an institute that could help here?

And really: If this turns out to be a natural galena specimen - I envy you! :)

Best regards
Tobi

[Mathias]

[Mathias]

[Jordi Fabre]

Recommended reading: Hollow Galena from Madan, Bulgaria

[Bob Harman]

Lots of responses, interesting thoughts, reading and considered speculation. And it still is just that.....speculation.

Whether the original posted example is a lab created bismuth, or a lab created galena, or actually one of the finest natural hoppered galenas either from Germany
or Romania or ? ever found, still amounts to speculation.

All interesting stuff, but, unless the specimen is completely tested, I doubt the question of this specimen will be definitively answered on this forum thread. BOB

[Gerhard Brandstetter]

I'm a little confused .... apparently nobody has read my opinion on this question. As I wrote a little above, I know at least 99% of the answer. The galena in question is very, very typical for the Katerina coal mine in Radvanice, Czech Republic. Ask also experienced collectors from Bohemia - they know these finds very well. Nice greetings from Austria - Gerhard

[Gagat Minerals]