Alabandite with Rhodochrosite

Item Description

World-class specimens of Alabandite, a rare manganese sulfide, began surfacing from the Uchucchacua silver mine in Peru between 2008 and 2010. No other locality in the world has come close to the size and quality of the crystals from these finds at Uchucchacua and this is an excellent specimen! This is a very nice cluster of gun-metal gray crystals that display a bluish iridescence associated with seams of pale pink Rhodochrosite. This is a large cluster with individual crystals between 0.5 and 3 cm across, most of them displaying spinel law twins! These sharp, twinned crystals are unprecedented for the species! These impressive Alabandite crystals are associated with contrasting drusy pink Rhodochrosite stringers, especially toward the bottom of the specimen. Excellent piece for the species from finds around 2010-13.