Ferberite xtls on Quartz, Kara Oba, Kazakhstan, historic piece, ex Wim Klein

  

Here is a relatively rare locality specimen. Good Ferberite crystals on a Quartz crystal. This specimen is from Kara Oba, a Tungsten deposit in Kazakhstan which was worked during the Soviet Union period, mostly for military purposes.

The locality did produced some unusual and often pretty mineral combinations. I just listed a different item which had Hubnerite crystals. Although Hubnerite is much more rare than Ferberite at Kara Oba, Ferberite was usually better crystallized, as this specimen shows. What is neat about this specimen is that if you study it, for one, it is crystallized on all sized.

The Quartz crystal on first glance looks partial, but turns out it is crystallized on all sides, even the bottom side. The back once had a contact where it grew against a different object, but then naturally rehealed. The Berberite crystals are well formed and compare favorably with other localities, like Panasqueira in Portugal, or China. Like the Quartz, the Ferberite appears to have had growth interruption on one side, but upon closer look all of this side had been crystallized, and covered with micro crystals. Just a very good piece for this locality and combination, very rare to see on the market, due to the age and obscurity of the locality.

This specimen was possibly mined in the early 80's. This specimen is also from the former collection of Wim Klein, a noted Dutch mineral collector and dealer, who specialized in older and smaller mineral localities. His collection contained many good minerals from older classic localities, less widely seen on the market. This specimen is 6 5/8 oz, or 186 grams. The size is 3 x 2 x 1.5inch in size.

The Largest Ferberite crystal is 1.4 inch in width, and about 1inch in height.