Alabandite

$4,500.00

$40.00 shipping
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Ships from USA

Crystal ClassicsFeatured

Tucson, Arizona, USA

7,543 for sale·132 sold

Manganese sulphide, known by the mineralogical name Alabandite, is an unusual compound compared with the much commoner manganese oxides such as Pyrolusite and Manganite. Indeed, many of the reported world occurrences of Alabandite are from meteorites. That said, well-crystallized Alabandite does occur terrestrially, but only in extremely rare circumstances. One such occurrence, thought by many to be the pinnacle of this species, is in the Merelani Hills in the Manyara Region, Tanzania, which is of course better known for the gem variety of Zoisite known as Tanzanite. Top quality crystals of Alabandite first appear to have been noticed there in 2013, but good crystals are rare, making this miniature specimen exceptional. It is from the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021) and consists of an off-matrix single, large cubo-octahedral crystal, measuring an impressive 4 x 4 cm on edge. There is a small chip out of the top face and the rear of the crystal is missing where it was recovered from matrix. but on balance it is of museum quality for the species.