Collection: Stibnite from Italy

Say Tuscany and most people think of wine and cypress trees, yet southern Tuscany is also one of Italy’s important antimony provinces. Montauto Mine, near Manciano in Grosseto Province, sits in Miocene sedimentary rocks, where low-temperature hydrothermal fluids deposited ore along fault zones. It was worked in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Its stibnite is known for slender, needle-like crystals with a metallic luster, silvery gray with a faint blue cast, and fine striations along the longer crystals. They grow in radiating or criss-crossing sprays on white host rock, silver-gray set against bright white in sharp contrast.