Imiterite (incredibly rare) with Proustite

Item Description

Here we have an incredibly rare specimen of Imiterite, a silvery mercury sulfide mineral from the type locality and namesake for the species, the famed Imiter Mine in Morocco. Imiterite was first approved as a species in 1985, and has since been reported from about two dozen other mines around the world. Still, the finest and most well-known pieces are those from the Imiter Mine. This small cabinet specimens features small (in the 1 mm range), very thin, prismatic, dark silvery metallic colored crystals of Imiterite associated with gorgeous, gemmy, blood-red Proustites which cover a good portion of the front/display side of the specimen. It should be noted that Kurt's collection catalogue mentions that there is also Xanthoconite on the specimen, which is a lower temperature dimorph of Proustite, and tends to have more of a golden to brownish hue from the Imiter Mine, but I can't find anything that really looks like Xanthoconite even under magnification. Perhaps it's there, and I simply missed it. With that said, I did have a great time looking at this piece under magnification, as both the Imiterite and Proustite crystals are notably well-formed, euhedral and beautifully crystallized. A fantastic rarity from this famous silver mine, that came out in the late 1990s-early 2000s.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#30 M), a well-known German collector all over Europe with worldwide contacts to dealers and collectors. He started collecting seriously at the age of 14 and his great and varied worldwide collection reached over 6000 pieces. He was very active mineralogically until shortly before his passing in 2020 at the age of 82. Considering his collection had a large number of pieces, it still had an unusually high standard of quality from most worldwide localities. He particularly specialized in all classics as well as minerals of the Black Forest, where he spent much time collecting. His Black Forest and German subcollections went to his good friend Wolfgang Wendel. We at The Arkenstone have the privilege of offering the remainder of this great worldwide collection through our various platforms.