Description

This is a polished slice, cut from a solid piece of ore, of a mixture of three minerals: sphalerite, galena and marcasite (a mineral association known as schalenblende). Beautifully sized, very graphic specimen. From Schmalgraf’s Lontzen mine in the Vieille-Montagne concession, whose headquarters were in neutral Moresnet, now in Belgium.

This concession is world-famous for having been the cradle of the zinc industry in the 19th century. At the time, the mining company’s industrial and administrative headquarters were located in what was known as “Neutral Moresnet”, a territory that belonged to no country, wedged between Belgium, Prussia (later Germany) and the Netherlands.

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