Orpiment & Realgar - Getchell Mine, Adams Peak, Potosi District, Humboldt County, USA

*Personal Collection Piece*

Collected July 1959 by Ralph Merrill

This is a cabinet-sized crystal cluster combining orpiment and realgar from the Getchell Mine in the Osgood Mountains of Humboldt County, Nevada — one of the most celebrated American localities for this classic arsenic sulfide pairing, and a name that carries genuine weight among collectors of sulfide minerals and Carlin-type ore deposit specimens alike. The Getchell deposit is a sediment-hosted, Carlin-type gold system emplaced in Cambrian shale and limestone, with associated arsenic, mercury, and antimony mineralization that produced some of the finest orpiment and realgar specimens ever recovered from North America. The mine is also the type locality for getchellite, a rare arsenic-antimony sulfide named for the deposit itself, underscoring just how unusual and mineralogically significant this locality is.

Realgar (AsS) forms the deep red-orange component of this specimen, while orpiment (As₂S₃) contributes the characteristic golden-yellow, pearly crystals frequently found intergrown with or overgrowing realgar at this locality — the two minerals are closely related polymorphic-adjacent arsenic sulfides that commonly form together in low-temperature hydrothermal and epithermal environments like the one at Getchell. Both minerals are notably light- and air-sensitive: realgar in particular is known to slowly alter to pararealgar with prolonged light exposure, developing a dulled, orange-yellow powdery surface over time, which is part of why well-preserved, vividly coloured older specimens like this one are especially valued — this piece has clearly been cared for and kept from significant light degradation since its original collection.

This specimen carries genuine vintage provenance, having been personally collected in July 1959 by Ralph Merrill, a name recognized among longtime Nevada mineral collectors and field collectors of that era. Getchell material from this period predates much of the modern open-pit mining that reshaped the deposit starting in the 1980s, meaning specimens like this represent access and collecting conditions that are simply no longer available at the site today. A piece with this level of documented age, locality significance, and named personal collection history is a genuine centerpiece specimen for any serious sulfide mineral or Nevada locality collection — handle and display away from prolonged direct light exposure to help preserve its colour for the next collector.

Approx. specimen size: 125mm x 110mm 60mm

Approx. specimen weight: 897 grams