Quartz with Sphalerite, Dolomite

specimen number:
9302408

location:
Hilfe Gottes mine, Grund mine, Bad Grund, Gottingen, Lower Saxony, Germany

description:

A cluster of lustrous black sphalerite crystals, the largest measuring to almost 2.0 cm in size, hosting glistening colorless crystals of quartz to 1.0 cm in size. Crystals of dolomite are accented throughout. This is crystallized completely all around and in good condition.

Located near the town of Bad Grund in the Upper Harz region of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany, the Hilfe Gottes mine was part of a major hydrothermal vein system hosted within Carboniferous slates and greywackes. Mining in the Bad Grund area dates back to the sixteenth century, primarily targeting extensive hydrothermal vein deposits rich in galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, calcite, siderite, and barite. The Hilfe Gottes mine was formally unified with the Bergwerkswohlfahrt mine in 1923 to form the consolidated Grund mine, operated under Preussag Metall AG. Operating to depths of nearly nine hundred meters, it became historically significant as the very last active industrial ore mine in the Upper Harz before operations permanently ceased in 1992. Today, the site is celebrated by mineral collectors and historians worldwide for producing iconic mineral specimens, including lustrous lead-gray galena crystals, dark brown sphalerite, clear to white calcites, and curved ram's horn chalcanthite aggregates, with its legacy preserved at the Knesebeck Shaft mining museum.

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