Schiavinatoite (extremely rare) (ex Tom Campbell Collection)

Item Description

Schiavinatoite is an extremely rare niobium tantalum borate species, only found in THREE places in the world, all of this are in Madagascar. The specimen was named for the Italian mineralogist Giuseppe Schiavinato in 1999 (published in 2001). A decent number specimens were found in the late 1990s and early 2000s in Madagascar, but virtually nothing is available on the market today. It should be noted that this specimen was originally labeled as Behierite, which is the tantalum analogue of Schiavinatoite. Further study from 2007 shows that while portions of bipyramidal crystals of Behierite contain Schiavinatoite, the crystals may be partially altered into a species from the microlite group or rynersonite. This toenail sized specimen features a very good quality, sharp, well-formed, black bipyramidal (tetragonal) crystal of Schiavinatoite measuring 4 mm on white Quartz matrix. A good quality crystal and a great rarity for any species collector. Please note that this specimen was labeled as coming from a locality called "Manjaka", but we can't find a listing for this locality, and based upon our experience, the piece is very likely from the Ampanodiana Pegmatite. There are very few rare earth borates in the mineral world, and this is a great opportunity for rare species collectors to cross this one off their checklist. From the worldwide collection of Tom Campbell. Tom is a mineralogist and mineral collect who works with us here at The Arkenstone. He has over 35 years of experience in the fields of exploration geology, mining, and applied mineralogy, and has even more years under his belt as a collector! Tom has described many new species over the years, and discovered the rare phosphates Tiptopite, Fransoletite and Pahasapaite. Tom was also a co-author on the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Minerals. You can see a list of Tom's published works here ( https://www.irocks.com/thomas-j-campbell-publications-list ).