Manaksite (ridiculously rare) (ex David Burgess Collection)

Item Description

A ridiculously rare specimen from the Palitra pegmatite in FAR northwestern Russia along the border with Finland. Here we have an excellent example of the incredibly rare sodium potassium manganese silicate Manaksite featuring prismatic, columnar crystals of a pale straw yellow color. This piece is a large sample of this incredibly rare mineral, and is quite showy to boot! The label accompanying the piece states that the associated "yellow" mineral is Zakharovite, but I can only see a white species, which I believe to be either Natrosilite or Revdite. Interestingly, the species Manaksite gets its name because it is the manganese analogue of the species Fenaksite, which was named after its chemical components (Fe, Na, K, Si), which means that this Manaksite is named the same way due to its chemistry (Ma, Na, K, Si). This is a MUST HAVE specimen for any fan of rare minerals, as there is literally only ONE PLACE in the world where Manaksite is found, and to have a piece of this size and quality is incredibly rare these days and we have this one valued at $1,200 in our inventory. 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.