Cafarsite (rare) (ex David Burgess Collection)

Item Description

The most well known specimens of rare arsenate Cafarsite are found at the famous mountain of Scherbadung (German name) or Cervandone (Italian name), in the Binntal on the Swiss/Italian border of the Alps. The species got its name from this chemical composition (calcium, iron {Fe}, arsenate), but it turns out that the species has essential fluorine, so the chemical formula is going to be changed soon to reflect this. Additionally it appears that there is also sodium, manganese, aluminum and REE that will be part of the formula. This near cabinet sized specimen hosts dozens of small crystals of Cafarsite measuring up to about 3 mm which are partially coated with mint green colored Agardite-(Y) on gneiss matrix. The habit of the Cafarsite crystals ranges from cubic to octahedral to dodecahedral. This is a good representative specimen of Cafarsite from this classic Alpine locality. From the worldwide collection of David Burgess (1951-2016). David was a prolific species collector from Newington, Connecticut, and the namesake for the extremely rare cobalt arsenate species Burgessite, which he discovered.