Tinaksite on Charoite (rare association) (ex David Burgess Collection)

Item Description

A really eye-catching display specimen featuring coppery colored, fine quality, triclinic, prismatic crystals of Tinaksite measuring up to 2.6 cm sitting on light purple, "swirling", semi-fibrous Charoite. The piece is one of the more attractive and worthwhile specimens of this rare association that I've seen. It should be noted that Charoite is a very complex silicate which gets its name from the Chara River, while Tinaksite is not as complex of a silicate, and gets its name from its composition (titanium (Ti), sodium (Na) potassium (K) and silicon (Si) - similar to Cavansite). To the best of my knowledge, this is the only locality in the world where these two species are found together, and I'm fairly certain that neither of them has ever been reported outside of Russia. This is a good quality specimen with beautiful color and visceral appeal. 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.