Lollingite with Siderite

specimen number:
2262279

location:
Lolling, Huttenberger Erzberg, Sankt Veit an der Glan, Carinthia, Austria

description:
Good example from the type locality with metallic rich crystallized lollingite throughout a siderite matrix. The specimen comes with a previous collection data card giving a date of acquisition for this piece in 1962.

The Lolling mining district, situated within the Huttenberg region of Carinthia, Austria, is a historic underground mining locality internationally famous as the type locality for the iron arsenide mineral lollingite. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within the polymetallic Huttenberg-Lolling ore field, which consists of Paleozoic metamorphic sequences, including mica schists, gneishes, and thick marble lenses belonging to the Austroalpine crystalline basement. Hydrothermal fluids circulating through regional fault zones caused extensive siderite-metasomatism within the marble beds, precipitating massive iron carbonates alongside an exceptional suite of arsenide and sulfide minerals, including lollingite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, and secondary arsenates. Historically, superficial mining and smelting of the rich iron and arsenic outcrops date back to the Celtic and Roman eras, but systematic underground extraction expanded significantly from the sixteenth century onward as deep shafts were sunk to exploit both iron ore and industrial arsenic. Large-scale corporate operations peaked during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but structural depletion of high-grade ores, combined with shifting global market demands, led to a steady decline in activity, culminating in the permanent cessation of all commercial mining and the final closure of the operations in 1978.

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