Cassiterite

specimen number:
1052694

location:
Sauberg Mine, Ehrenfriedersdorf, Saxony, Germany

description:
Wonderful thumbnail specimen from this European classic with crystals of cassiterite set nicely up on matrix. This is in really good condition. The crystals exhibit twinning.

The Sauberg mine, located at Ehrenfriedersdorf within the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) district of Saxony, Germany, is a globally renowned historical locality celebrated for its exceptional, mirror-lustrous twins and complex crystal aggregates of cassiterite (tin oxide). Geologically, this world-class deposit is centered on a series of late Variscan-age (approximately 300 million years old) highly evolved post-orogenic granite intrusions that penetrated a thick sequence of Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic mica schists and gneisses. Hydrothermal greisenization and pneumatolytic processes fractured the granite exocontact, creating a dense network of steeply dipping quartz-baryte-fluorite veins and stockworks rich in cassiterite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, and fluorite, frequently hosting magnificent, cyclic twin crystals of tin stone inside open, hydrothermal pockets. Historically, primitive alluvial panning and surface quarrying for tin began as early as the thirteenth century, with formal underground shaft sinking and organized drainage tunneling commencing around 1380. The Sauberg mine evolved into the core structural producer of the Ehrenfriedersdorf district, operating with remarkable multi-century continuity through several technological transformations, including intensive modernizations during the twentieth century under the state-owned Soviet-German SDAG Wismut and later the VEB Albert Funk mining combine. Large-scale industrial underground extraction finally reached commercial depletion and ceased permanent operations on October 3, 1990, following the reunification of Germany.

Questions about this specimen?
Send an email or call us: 314-341-1811.