Barite with Realgar

specimen number:
1052551

location:
Baia Sprie, Maramures Co., Romania

description:
Tabular crystals of barite measuring to 1.5 cm in size across the top of matrix with minor realgar. Some damage present as seen, still a nice historical example that comes with an old label as shown at the end of the video. The specimen dates to the very early 20th century.

Baia Sprie, known historically by the Hungarian name Felsobanya, is a premier European mineral locality situated in the Maramures region of northern Romania. Geologically, the deposit is located within the Gutai Mountains and consists of an extensive system of hydrothermal veins hosted in Neogene volcanic rocks, specifically andesite and dacite. These veins formed as a result of complex volcanic activity that deposited a diverse range of metals, including gold, silver, lead, zinc, and antimony, often associated with a rich variety of sulfide and sulfosalt minerals. Historically, mining at Baia Sprie has ancient origins, with evidence suggesting activity during the Roman period and formal documentation appearing as early as the 14th century. The district was a crown mining town under the Hungarian and later Austro-Hungarian administrations, reaching high levels of technical sophistication in the 18th and 19th centuries. Large-scale industrial operations continued through the 20th century under the Romanian state, eventually closing in 2006 due to economic restructuring.

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