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Exhibit of the Month 3 / 2022
A well-known area for beautiful specimens of quartz and its various varieties has been the mining town of Banská Štiavnica and its surroundings for many centuries. As early as the 11th century, noble ores of silver, gold, and many other metals were mined in Banská Štiavnica. Excellent specimens of many types of minerals, such as chalcopyrite, barite, manganocalcite, galena, sphalerite, native silver, or stefanite, originate from here. Among mineral collectors, Banská Štiavnica is famous worldwide for the finds of so-called scepter or pigeonhole amethysts.
The ore veins continued in the vicinity of Banská Štiavnica. In the cadastral area of the village of Banská Belá, less rich veins were mined until the mid-19th century.
On the southeastern edge of the village of Banská Belá, there is a small quarry in the forest where quartzite was mined in the past. The walls of the quarry were interwoven with quartz veins. The cavities in the veins were mostly filled with crystals of common quartz and clear rock crystals, while purple amethysts were rarer. Among the crystals, there were white aggregates of chalcedony. The rock in which the veins with cavities occurred is very solid and hard. Obtaining quality specimens required good equipment and a lot of hard work, which often ended in the destruction of the sought-after sample. Another inconvenience was the rusty coatings of limonite on the crystals themselves, which can be carefully removed, preferably with a special water pressure gun. The largest found crystals reached a length of 20 centimeters. Crystals 10 centimeters long were quite common in the past. Currently, the walls of the quarry are heavily filled in, and quartz veins with cavities are rare and mostly already extracted by collectors. Nevertheless, with a bit of luck, one can find a small cavity with quartz crystals in the rubble. Or, given enough time, one can try to find and extract a quartz vein directly in the wall of the quarry.
The displayed quartz specimens from Banská Belá are from the collection of Ing. Ladislav Blaha from Most.