Diopside on marble

Item Description

This piece is a good quality matrix Diopside from a discovery in Afghanistan in July 2021. These pieces are coming from the Janduk Mine, and are truly beautiful and impressive examples of Diopside as they are colorful, well-formed and they're on matrix. This mine is near the famous locality Ladjuar Medam, Afghanistan, which is best known for producing world class specimens of Lazurite (Lapis), Sodalite, Richterite and Afghanite among other things. The Diopsides form in the same marble as the other minerals, which is often etched away to expose the crystals within. This piece is a showy example of these exciting and colorful specimens featuring a predominant, beautiful light green colored, sharp and well-formed crystal measuring 3.1 cm on white marble matrix. The piece is in good shape overall, and it sits quite nicely on its own. For reference, I've seen a few of these pieces labeled as "Lavrovite", which is a vanadium-bearing variety of Diopside, but we have not had these pieces analyzed to know whether or not they contain vanadium. I will say that there is probably some kind of chromophore in these Diopside crystals (possibly something like vanadium or chromium), because they are a brighter green than you'd typically find in the species, as a lot of Diopside from around the world is a much darker green typically. If you collect Pyroxene minerals, specimens from Afghanistan, or if you're a fan of species from marble deposits, this is a great chance to pick up one these attractive and worthwhile Diopsides from this recent discovery.