Barite

specimen number:
2282050

location:
Styggedalsgangen, Bamble, Telemark, Norway

description:
A loose gemmy beautiful amber colored grouping of barite crystals without matrix. In good condition all around.

The Styggedalsgangen adit, located approximately 0.5 kilometers south of Herre within the Bamble municipality of Telemark, Norway, is a historical base-metal deposit worked primarily for lead, zinc, and copper. Geologically, the locality is part of the Trak vein system, which consists of steep, hydrothermal quartz veins that intruded fractured Precambrian basement rocks of the Kongsberg-Bamble sector during the Permian rifting of the nearby Oslo Grift. While the primary ore mineralization deposited massive aggregates of galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite, the outer parts of the Styggedalsgangen vein system are particularly famous for containing extensive vugs and open pockets lined with exceptional, well-developed crystals of barite alongside minor calcite. Mining along the Trak veins dates back as early as 1543, with intermittent periods of exploration and systematic underground tunneling taking place through the nineteenth century until all industrial base-metal extraction permanently ceased around 1908.

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