Tetradymite

specimen number:
2262255

location:
Zupkov, Zarnovica, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia

description:
Metallic crystalline tetradymite fairly rich across the top of matrix. The specimen comes with a previous data card with an acquisition date in 1970.

The Zupkov mineral locality, situated within the Zarnovica District of the Banska Bystrica Region in central Slovakia and historically documented in old Austro-Hungarian records under the name Zsubko, is an iconic global locality celebrated as the official type locality for the bismuth telluride sulfide mineral tetradymite. Geologically, this historic deposit is situated within the Stiavnica stratovolcano complex of the Western Carpathians, where late-stage, high-temperature hydrothermal fluids cooling inside open fault structures cutting through Neogene volcanic rocks precipitated rare bismuth and tellurium minerals. The tetradymite occurs within these quartz veins as soft, flexible, steel-gray foliated masses, platy aggregates, and highly distinctive fourfold twin crystal clusters, typically intimately associated with native gold, chalcopyrite, and pyrite. Historically, localized underground mining and minor surface quarrying targeting the gold-bearing veins occurred sporadically along the Zupkov valley during the early part of the 19th century, culminating in the formal scientific discovery and description of the mineral species by chemical researcher A. Wehrle in 1831. These artisanal and corporate extraction efforts were short-lived, with all exploratory adits permanently closed and abandoned later in the 19th century due to the erratic distribution and rapid depletion of economic gold reserves.

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