Barite

specimen number:
2062769

location:
Murton Mine, Scordale, Murton, Eden, Cumbria, England, UK

description:
A cluster of semi lustrous mostly transparent colorless barite crystals with little attached matrix. Crystallized completely all around, this is in good condition with minimal cleaving low on the back side of the specimen. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

The Murton Mine, situated on the western side of the Scordale valley within the Northern Pennine Orefield, features mineralized veins and flat deposits hosted within Lower Carboniferous limestones that are intruded by dolerite sills. The geology of the site is characterized by fault-controlled hydrothermal mineral veins carrying lead ore along with secondary industrial minerals like barite. Mining activity dates back at least to the eighteenth century, with major industrial scale extraction taking place during the nineteenth century under the management of the London Lead Company. Operations later shifted toward barite production around the turn of the twentieth century before final commercial closure occurred near the end of the second decade of that century.

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