Quartz

Here is a palm-sized quartz, it's mostly crystal clear but shows an interior smoky phantom. Overall condition is good, with clean lustrous faces and great transparency. There is cleavage at the back and some minor bruising to edges. Specimens of this size are rarely encountered from this mine, making it a distinctive and appealing example for the locality.

The specimen comes from the Nanisivik Mine on northern Baffin Island, roughly 750 km north of the Arctic Circle, one of the world’s most northerly operating base-metal mines. Active from 1976 until its closure in 2002, Nanisivik produced zinc and lead from Mississippi Valley–type mineralization hosted in dolostone. Today, the mine is legendary among collectors for its distinctive and often beautifully crystallized specimens, making examples such as this scarce.