Description
Hydroxylpyromorphite in white crust, green pyromorphite in crystals and flows, colorless cerussite in and around a very fresh broken galena potato from the famous Rocher du Boeuf de l’Argentolle quarry at Saint-Prix in Saône-et-Loire (71), in the heart of the Morvan region. Located at the foot of Bibracte, the Aeduan city of Mont Beuvray, the galena veins were well known to the Aedui for their extraction of alquifoux and, above all, silver (450 grams per ton of lead sulfide, hence the name Argentolle). Subsequently mined for fluorite, the Bois du Sureau vein, then the Rocher du Boeuf quarry, produced a variety of unusual crystallizations, including hematoidal quartz and the famous “galena potatoes” sought after by mineralogists for the diversity of secondary lead species they host, such as this sample where the cubic structure is visible despite lead phosphate alteration. A nice-sized sample, fresh and very didactic.
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