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BGB20-28•listed on 10/23/2024
A very rare, huge for the species, sharply tapering Parisite crystal from the little known Mula Mine in the Bahia state of Brazil. This complete-all-around, pristine, off-white crystal has a pseudohexagonal outline, barely discernible horizontal striae and a chalky white color and luster. Parisite in all its varietals is a very rare, rare-earth carbonate and this locality has produced some exceptional crystals and this is one of them! For years, it was unsure if these were Synchisite, Parisite-Ce, or another related species in the family; or possibly even a new species. I have seen them labelled as all of those options in the past. WIKIPEDIA weighs in with this as of 2021: Parisite-(La) is mineral discovered by Daniel Atencio of the University of Sao Paulo and colleagues in the Mula claim, Bahia, Brazil. Parisite-(La) is the lanthanum analog of parisite-(Ce), which has the same structure, but with cerium substituted for lanthanum. Parisite-(La) is chemically similar to synchysite-(La). The type material for parisite-(La) resides in the mineralogical collections of the Museu de Ciência e Técnica, Escola de Minas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and at the University of Arizona Mineral Museum, Tucson, Arizona. Here is an example from the famed and well documented collection of Luis Menezes: https://www.mindat.org/photo-771286.html. This rocket-shaped, terminated, prismatic crystal is well-formed and large for the species and the locality, from what we have seen and from what you can see online. It represents an extraordinary crystal of this seldom seen material from Brazil or anywhere, from small finds of around 2010-15
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