Happy New Year to you all, and long live Mindat!Georges

Nice picture and combination, congratulations!The color and associations remind me of Cap Garonne specimens.Could you please have the green plates checked ?If it was zeunerite, it could be new for the locality (as of 31/08/2023).All the best,Georges.

Hi Edgars, Thank you for your nice contribution. The brownish orange background may contain cobaltlothatmeyerite. Such specimens were found in weathered löllingite masses in the Ait Ahmane area (#54 vein and along the dirt track between the mines).  

Greetings,For some unknown reason, some geminite specimens turn blue and opaque. This occurred on 4 of my specimens from Cap Garonne and 3 from the Khder mine in the Bou Azzer district, all previously translucent and pale green or pale blue.Georges.

Uncommon picture of a common mineral. Thanks Steve!!

Nice picture, thank you! Is there a chance that it could be rosasite?Best wishes,Georges Favreau

Congratulations Volker. I have seen hundreds of erythrite specimens in Bou Azzer. This is a really nice picture.

Thank you Frank for this detailed answer. I am happy that hillite could join the group :-)Are we sure that each member in a group can have series with any of the other members? I don't know enough the definition of a group.Cheers,Georges.

Greetings!Fairfieldite and collinsite are described as part of a series.Is it the same for fairfieldite (Mn) and messelite (Fe)?Thanks,Georges.

"Mononclinic" minerals - some more questions on these three mineral pictures : • Rhombohedral system for gypsum ? • Any rectangle in this gypsum crystal ? • Any face with 6 edges in this gypsum crystal ? • « Monoclinic » system for turquoise ? • Turquoise picture … or quartz ...

Hi, I am afraid the description was wrong. Looks like calcite.:-) Georges.

The district has been reworked: - district renamed, - organization of localities reworked, - map of the district added, - description of the district added + references, - 6 species added (for such a big district, the count of species is very low). Georges.

Hi all, Norman King raised a question about the Touissit district in a thread dedicated to the organization of Moroccan regions. Let us continue this specific discussion in a new thread. Here is Norman's question: "I wonder about “districts.” You did not mention them in your ...

Dear Norman, Thank you for taking some time to properly locate the Oum Laab locality. I am not sure that the districts have a very formal definition in Morocco. However, it can be a convenient way to group localities which share a geographical area that is not directly mapped onto an ...

Dear all, The Morocco pages have been updated to take into account the new regions created in 2015. The administrative reform put in place 12 regions, replacing the previous 16. The Moroccan regions are composed of prefectures (13) and provinces (62). These prefectures and provinces were ...

Done. Description was updated. Best wishes, Georges.

Hi Reiner, The specimen is from the same discovery as the material used in the study of the species. It fits with the description of the publication, bluebellite "forms bright bluish-green plates or flakes up to ~20 μm ×20 μm ×5 μm in size that are usually curved" and is "associated ...

Dear all, Dissakisite-(Ce) may be more abundant than previously thought (like wendwilsonite in Bou Azzer). But before generalizing the conclusions to "almost all" or "all" crystals, is it possible to know how many samples were studied? The Japanese article refers to the analyzed "sample" ...

Hi Uwe, Thanks for trying to correct all these localities with so inconsistent rules in their naming ! Back to our Jas Roux question, difficult to know who initiated the spelling "Valgaudémar" on wikipedia. Seems to have been a partly automated process started in 2005. The French Ministry ...

Hi ! Doesn't it seem inconsistent to write "Valgaudémard" and pronounce "Valgaudemar"? In my honest opinion, I think it would be better to stick to the the spelling used by the Ecrins National Park and also by the municipality in La Chapelle (maybe both know what they are talking about...). ...

Well done Jolyon & Katya! So many nice things to see in Munich, and your report gives a good idea of the highlights of this show,thanks ! I do appreciate your pictures. However, since this is an open thread to give one's own opinions, I still cannot understand how one can glue a 1/4 million euro ...

Christian, Tes remarques sur les photos sont judicieuses, mais elles reposent implicitement sur le postulat que l'on cherche à faire une encyclopédie exhaustive et sans doublons, ce que mindat n'est pas. La liberté qu'on laisse à chacun de poster les photos de sa collection a des effets ...

Hi Trevor, I could collect such specimens in place in Ambed. I did not have the green xls checked, but they are most likely annabergite. The pink may be annabergite, too, and we have a growing list of localities with pink annabergite (reversely, I never saw any confirmed green erythrite with ...

The lathlike crystals look like prehnite, very common with epidote near Ait Hani. For the more fibrous crystals, I do not know. Georges.

One common point between many Moroccan minerals is that they are transported into boxes previously used for oil (Lousra brand) or washing powder. Just check at the next show if you see Moroccan dealers. That is the only common point I can think of, and I do not know if these boxes smell enough ...

Hi all, Although combining hemimorphite, smithsonite and rosasite, three species known in Agoulzi, the specimen does not seem to be from this mine. Smithsonite was rather tan, and rosasite was rare. Hemimorphite mainly occurred in gossan. I have never seen any Touissit specimen like this, ...

I agree with Volker. This kind of rock and hairy xls remind of the Italian vonsenite. Georges.

Dear All, In the mindat gallery, I was surprised to see the same Chilean material labeled as "Dos Adriana mine" and "Los Azules mine" (caledonite, phurcalite…), both in Zapallar district. The same strange situation occurred in my collection. I asked Maurizio Dini, who is a specialist of the ...

Hi all, Indeed these minerals can hardly be told from one another visually. Löllingite seems a good guess. The rusty rim seems to indicate an iron species, but an analysis is necessary to be sure. Best wishes, Georges.

Hi O.T. and Lefteris, O.T., you are a good field collector! This mineral reminds me of Ca-Fe arsenates that we already met in Oumlil. Only a few with good balls were found, and yours is nice. The association with "pharmacosiderite" does not rule out a uranium mineral, as zeunerite and ...

Hi Reiner, In the Bou Azzer district, the members of this series are very abundant, with colors far from the theoretical ones: green and pink hörnesite; gray, brown and pinkish parasymplesite, grayish erythrite, pink annabergite... Due to the ore, that often contains Fe, Co and Ni at the same ...

Hi Lefteris, We did quite some work on the brown olivenites from Cerro Minado, but there was never enough Co to make it a new species (we also had high Ni contents in some other ones, brown too, but not enough!). At least the checking of these unusual olivenites allowed us to find ...

Hi, I also agree that, regardless of any other considerations, the picture of the mineral should be exhibiting a tube. Now, the page of the mineral shows the picture currently showing best the tubes. Georges.

It can be parasymplesite or hörnesite, too. Many other pharmacolite specimens in the mindat gallery actually look like picropharmacolite. A simple test with HCl could easily solve some identifications (Brosso)... Cheers, Georges.

Hi Rob, Could your mineral from Van Silver be tubulite? It would be fun to find a third locality, just after approval of the mineral. Best regards, Georges.

Bonjour Serge, Les analyses ont penché pour la ferristrunzite. Les détails seront donnés dans le Cahier des Micromonteurs 3/2012. Amicalement, Georges.

Well done, Serge. We will add it. Georges.

Hi, I just uploaded a picture of Jacques, Emile Dietrich to be used for the page of his namesake mineral, jacquesdietrichite. http://www.mindat.org/photo-430811.html Thanks, Georges.

Hi all, Currently, the list of minerals from the Maria Josefa mine describes many species based on the following article: G. Leal, Antonio Arribas, Miguel A. Fernandez, Joachim Grobner, Francisco Hernandez (2005): Rodalquilar : El oro del Cabo del Agata. Bocamina, 15, 14-79. Some being very ...

Bonjour, Si je peux me permettre un petit commentaire. Nous sommes un certain nombre à passer des heures et des heures à essayer de mettre d'équerre les données, les descriptions de gisements, les listes d'espèces, les identifications de photos, etc. D'autres, consciencieusement, ...

Hi, Thank you for posting the pictures. Sorry to be the troublemaker, but if I may give my opinion, this is not an imiterite specimen, and I doubt it is from Imiter. I would rather think to some manganese oxide, like pyrolusite (there may be several mines like Imini for the origin). Let us ...

Hi, I collected some of this gray, metallic mineral with a good cleavage. Turned out to be stibnite (EDS). I should have guessed it, because as Norman righly says, parapierrotite does not have this good cleavage. The earthy, sometimes pale pink product nearby looked like avicennite, but EDS ...

Hello, I cannot write in Portuguese, and I hope you will understand me. I was very intererested to read that bieberite was found in the Palhal mine, and tha the mineral occurs in crystals on which the monoclinic system can be seen! Bieberite - Trata-se de uma espécie de formação recente e os ...

Hi, I collected nealite the one and only time I was in Legrena, but as Vik and Lefteris said, this does not mean much, the mineral can be in many places. Rock is not wrong when he says this is a specimen of arrow rock. Vik, you will certainly find a better specimen worth keeping. Good ...

Hi Reiner, I agree...generally speaking. However, I collected black grains in Jas Roux believing they were chabourneite/(parapierrotite), and many turned out to be stibnite. Difficult. Georges.

Hi all, I am surprised nobody has talked about stibnite yet . I went once to this locality (thanks Joe!) and collected some specimens in place. All the steel-gray material I collected with a distinct cleavage and rather large grains (up to 2 mm) was stibnite. The powdery associated pale pink ...

Looks like some weathered limestone. I have seen such things in Morocco. What about a test with dilute HCl? Georges.

Hi all, Lanthanite-(Ce) is known from a small outcrop near Mosset, where it is found as nice flatteded crystals (pale pink to white). It is not a mine, just on the side of the road, and I am not sure we can give a more precise name than "Mosset". Regarding your specimen #1, it sure looks ...

Holà Daniel, Thanks for the update. I am not familiar with the new locality, but it looks more likely. Just one more thing: I am afraid the matrix could rather be some felspar (albite...) than dolomite. Georges.

Thanks Marco, The IMA approval file does not include (yet) how the new minerals must be pronounced :-) I personally spell it af-mite. Now, I wish you to find an Amiite... Georges