When people think about salt, they often have visions of powdered salt for putting on food, but the same salt, sodium chloride, or Halite as mineralogists know it, can form the most amazing crystals. Crystals can include cubes, or cubes with hoppered internal faces, but how big can these crystals get? Well, here is the answer. This large cabinet display specimen consists of two exceptionally large intergrown cubes. The largest is a colossal 11.8 cm on edge and the 'smaller' cube 8.4 cm on edge. It is from the world famous Wieliczka mine in Poland that from the 13th century developed underground to extract the valuable salt which had previously be tapped from brines since Neolithic times. Mining operations continued, almost uninterrupted, through until 1996 when economic conditions forced its closure. This specimen is truly exceptional, not just for its size, but for being free from damage. The crystals are sharply formed, colourless, and internally transparent - the effect of very slight surface dissolution has produced a slightly frosted appearance on the crystal surfaces and a very slight rounding of the crystal edges, but this is typical of all Halite specimens. Pale orange fluorescence is exhibited under SW UV light. This is a worldclass Halite specimen and certainly worth its salt!
