PXA1 Pyrite

Huanzala Mine, Huallanca District, Dos de Mayo Province, Peru

14.5x 11.7x 9.5 cm

A stunning large cabinet specimen, representing the best from a lot of a few hundred.  This piece is in perfect condition, boasting completely formed, damage free crystals to 7.5 cm on edge.  

This specimen displays well from multiple angles, and only two minor crystals on the main display face show any chipping. There is a contact on the reverse, but after all it had to be detached from somewhere.  The main crystals are perfect and undamaged, and from the three angles shown in the various images, the specimen displays perfectly.

This specimen is easily in the top .001% of material recovered from Huanzala.  A miner told me that these pieces are snuck out of the mine in rucksacks weighing as much as 50 kg.  Under such conditions, it is a minor miracle that any specimen can survive in such good condition.  

This mine has produced thousands of tones of specimen pyrite--most of the "fool's gold" clusters that you see for sale in various rock and gift shops originated from this mine.  Such low grade pieces are called "chispas" by the local miners.  Dodecahedrons are called "cocos" (coconuts) and cubes are called "cubos".  The rarest and most prized, "triangulos" are the octahedral crystals that are only recovered every few years at best.