Not Sphalerite Tower 69g

This is a spectacular tower, all black and shiny with a chewed up, druse-covered, spotty, botryoidal cavernous front. It's truly a punk rock.

This material is pretty interesting as well. It's been labeled and marketed as "sphalerite" for years, with specimens generally sold out of Pakistan and China in the form of towers and carvings. The base is generally the shiny black crystal with druse caverns interrupting the shape of the tower or carving because it looks cool. And the truth is... it DOES look cool. :D

But it's not sphalerite. Sphalerite is quite soft... 3.5-4 on the mohs scale and soft enough that you could scratch your name on it with a copper penny. This material is generally pretty hard, around 7 like quartz. Most significantly, sphalerite is a major zinc ore and lab tests run by people investigating this stuff indicate that there's absolutely no zinc present. It seems to be a black chalcedony with various minerals in the caverns depending on the individual specimen.... fluorite, goethite, druse quartz, etc. You can Google the controversy, it's pretty racy stuff for a rock! :)

So you bought one of these from someone that told you it was sphalerite... did you get ripped off? Well... maybe. It's certainly not sphalerite. But it's beautiful and mysterious and, honestly, that's what you were really investing in, right? The coolness? Well, you have a bad-ass rock and a great scientifically founded story you can drive your geologically disinterested friends crazy with. You get a beautiful stone with details and inclusions you can study and meditate on at length, drawing your own conclusions as you form your relationship with this rock. A delightful material, not sphalerite.

9x2.5cm
3 1/2 x 1 inch
96g

As a natural mineral, this product may include the beautiful, fabulous inconsistencies, dings, divots, inclusions, vugs, and sparkly bits that nature bestows upon the things that it creates. Any woes and wonders have been calculated into the price. We’ve done our best to capture the product accurately, but colours will vary and measurements are taken on oddly shaped stones. Metaphysical properties are not intended as a substitute for professional medical or psychological treatment.