Phoenicochroite with Vauquelinite

specimen number:
1052526

location:
Berezovsk, Beryozovsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia

description:
From the type locality for the species, red masses of phoenicochroite on matrix with vauquelinite. Neat historical specimen that comes with an old label as shown at the end of the video. This label dates to the early 20th century.

The Berezovskoe deposit, situated near Yekaterinburg in the Middle Ural Mountains of Russia, is legendary as the birthplace of Russian gold mining and a prolific source of rare minerals. Geologically, it consists of a complex network of gold-bearing quartz veins that cut through a unique host rock known as beresite, which is an altered granite or quartz-porphyry. These veins formed during the late Paleozoic era when hydrothermal fluids infiltrated fractures created by the Uralian orogeny. Historically, gold was discovered here in 1745, leading to the development of over 50 mines and the establishment of the first major gold industry in the Russian Empire. The deposit is world-famous as the type locality for crocoite, which subsequently led to the discovery of the element chromium. It is also the type locality for the rare mineral phoenicochroite, which was first described from this site in 1833. Phoenicochroite typically occurs as small, dark cochineal-red to orange-red crystals or crusts, often found in the oxidized zones of the lead-bearing veins.

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