Baryte

This specimen features a single, colourless, gemmy baryte crystal with excellent lustre, kept in a perky box. Well-formed, transparent baryte crystals of this quality are exceptionally rare from this locality. Comes with an accompanying Mineral Exchange label (dated 1993), the specimen was likely collected by Jonathan Levinger during a very limited pocket discovery in the mid-1990s. Reportedly, only five small groups and roughly a dozen loose crystals were recovered, making this an unusually scarce example.

The specimen originates from the Sainte-Clotilde-de-Châteauguay quarry, formerly the Marcil Quarry, in Sainte-Clotilde-de-Châteauguay, Québec. The quarry is located in dolomitic limestone of the Beekmantown Formation and is best known for producing fine pink dolomite, calcite, and quartz crystals. While baryte is listed among the species known from the quarry, it has only been recorded on rare occasions, typically as minor white flakes, making a crystal of this clarity and form particularly noteworthy.