Daliranite (New Species) With Orpiment - image 1

Daliranite (New Species) With Orpiment

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Daliranite occurs as hair-like crystals, in appearance similar to ludlockite. This beautiful new species is a new sulfosalt from the Zarshouran Au-As deposit, Iran, published in late 2009. Only a small number of these pieces were recovered and then studied. This is one of the largest extant specimens and is co-type material, which I obtained by exchange from the collection of Dr. Werner Paar of the University of Salzburg. Dr. Paar is lead author on the publication of the species (Mineralogical Magazine, Oct. 2009, vol. 73 #5.) Daliranite occurs as very rich orange-red crystals, eye visible but sub-mm in size, easily seen on this contrasting matrix specimen of quartz. It is associated with orpiment and other related species (he has identified both galkhaite and cinnabar as present on this piece). This specimen is a large, display-worthy piece that could EASILY be trimmed into 2 very fine but smaller display-quality samples, and perhaps yielding lesser reference specimens as well. The orpiment veins and crystals make this an attractive piece, overall. These specimens were found in 1998-2002 and studied only later, in Germany. Return trips by the authors in 2005, to the dumps, were unsuccessful at finding more daliranite and it remains today a fairly rare species, thus. Originally, and erroneously, reported as ludlockite from Zarehehuran, Takap, Takht-e-Suleiman massif, Azerbaijan. Apparently, it was rather difficult to analyse and presented a fair challenge to the crystallographers. TYPE AND ONLY LOCALITY MATERIAL. COTYPE MATERIAL.