Barite

specimen number:
1115248

location:
Pohla-Tellerhauser Mine, Saxony, Germany

description:
Very choice large lustrous translucent crystal grouping of barite with very little attached matrix. In great condition. Find German classic.

The Pohla-Tellerhauser mining district, situated in the Ore Mountains of Saxony, Germany, is a historic underground mine complex primarily worked for tin, tungsten, and iron ore. Geologically, the deposit is situated within the crystalline basement of the western Erzgebirge, where Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic metamorphic schists and skarns were intensely metasomatized by late-Variscan granitic intrusions. This geochemical event formed extensive skarn bodies rich in magnetite, fluorite, and sphalerite, along with quartz-cassiterite veins and localized uranium mineralization. Large-scale exploratory drilling and shaft sinking began under the direction of the Soviet-German Wismut corporation in 1967 to evaluate the area's uranium and base-metal potential. Systematic underground mining and extraction operations under the state-owned VEB Bergbau- und Huttenkombinat Albert Funk commenced in 1977, focusing on the extensive tin-bearing skarns, and operations continued steadily until economic shifts following the reunification of Germany and changing global metals markets led to the permanent closure and subsequent flooding of the mine in 1991.

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