Nosean, Pyrite, Calcite

Item Description

Nosean (sometimes called Noselite) is an uncommon member of the feldspar group that is closely related to all the other blue and shapely minerals from this historic Lapis Lazuli locality: Sodalite, Hackmanite, Lazurite and Hauyne. They have to be analysed (EDS) to distinguish them properly, as Dr. Woodside has done here. This is a very rich and rare confirmed specimen of nosean as confirmed by his analysis. It is a rich specimen with a full display face of crystals, some translucent, to 5 mm. We have NEVER had a confirmed nosean beyond thumbnail size. Dr. Rob Woodside is a lifelong collector residing in Vancouver, who has built and sold several important systematic and silver collections to the Royal Ontario Museum. He kept for himself in retirement from University of British Columbia, a worldwide collection of mixed minerals and a collection of Afghani minerals from the historic Lapis deposit in Sar E Sang. Rob literally wrote the article on Sar E Sang and the weird and complicated group of sodalite-hauyne-related minerals from there, analysing all; and any such samples here are from his study collection put together during decades of this material coming out at its peak diversity in the mid 2000s. His article is the subject of the 2014 special issue of Mineralogical Record - Famous mineral localities: The Sar-e-Sang lapis mines, Kuran Wa Munjan district, Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan. How do you value something like this? Presumably they are out there, but most often misidentified as lapis, sodalite, or hauyne.