Safflorite (rare excellent crystals)

Item Description

Safflorite is a rare cobalt nickel iron arsenide species, and while it has been known since the 1830s, good specimens are incredibly hard to find on the market. Going back to the early 2000s there was a discovery at the Bouismas Mine in Morocco which produced some world-class Safflorite crystals, both in terms of size and quality. This piece is a wonderful example of this seldom-seen material featuring many sharp, well-formed, striated, prismatic, grey colored crystals measuring up to 5 mm, sitting atop beautifully contrasting whit Calcite matrix. Keep in mind that most Safflorite crystals outside of this locality are micros, so when you have a small cabinet sized matrix display specimen with eye-visible crystals like this, it's a big deal. The piece is in excellent condition, with no major damage that I can find. A stellar piece of a mineral that most collectors don't have in their collections, especially in showy display quality examples. Valued at $1,500-$2,000 retail.