Barite

specimen number:
1052913

location:
Frizington, Cumbria, England, UK

description:
Fine old British classic with glassy lustrous crystals of tabular barite across the top of matrix. Minimal damage present as seen, this still in good condition considering the size and age of this piece. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video and certainly dates to the early 20th century if not the 19th century.

Frizington, located in the West Cumberland iron mining district of Cumbria, England, evolved from a small agricultural settlement into a major industrial hub during the nineteenth-century iron ore boom. Geologically, the area is situated on the carboniferous limestone fringe of the Lake District, where circulating iron-rich hydrothermal fluids replaced host rock to form massive high-grade hematite deposits. Mineralogically, the local mines became world-famous for producing exceptional specimens of massive and botryoidal kidney ore hematite, alongside brilliant quartz, baryte, and dolomite associations. Large-scale commercial extraction intensified rapidly from the 1840s onward with the sinking of numerous deep pits, though production dwindled by the early twentieth century as international competition and resource depletion led to the eventual closure of the mines.

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