Auction Win: Goethite after Fluorite (stalactite)

Locality: Santa Eulalia Mining District, Aquiles Serdán Municipality, Chihuahua, Mexico

Size: Cabinet - 10 × 10 × 7 cm

Goethite is a hydrated iron oxide mineral with the formula FeO(OH) that forms as a weathering product of iron-bearing minerals. Named in 1806 by Johann Georg Lenz to honor the German poet and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, it is the principal component of limonite and gives yellow soils their characteristic color.

Located in the rugged Sierra Santo Domingo of Chihuahua, Mexico, the Santa Eulalia Mining District is one of the nation's chief silver and base metal producers with over three centuries of nearly continuous production since 1703 . Geologically renowned as the largest Carbonate Replacement Deposit in a prolific 2200 km belt, this district has yielded over half a billion troy ounces of silver and massive quantities of lead and zinc . Collectors specifically prize it for world-class rhodochrosite crystals from the Potosí Mine's Main Silicate Orebody and distinctive hemimorphite fans from the San Antonio Mine in the East Camp . The San Antonio Mine also holds historical significance as the first economic tin mine in North America, adding to the locality's importance for serious mineral specimen collectors .