Tetrahedrite

Tetrahedrite from the Herodsfoot Mine, Cornwall, England, measuring 65 × 45 × 34 mm and weighing 128 grams. A good piece from one of Cornwall's most mineralogically significant historic mines.

Tetrahedrite is a complex copper antimony sulfide, Cu12Sb4S13, isometric, usually dark grey to black with a metallic lustre, and it formed within Cornwall's historic polymetallic hydrothermal veins alongside the county's better-known tin and copper ores. The Herodsfoot Mine, worked mainly for lead and silver in the nineteenth century, became particularly well known among mineralogists for producing fine Tetrahedrite crystals, among the best documented from any British locality.

Herodsfoot material has real standing in the history of British mineralogy, and a well-formed Tetrahedrite from the mine is a genuine piece of that heritage rather than just another sulfide specimen. This piece is from the David Vince Collection.