Toyohaite (very rare)

Item Description

Ex. Dr. Werner Paar Collection. Toyohaite, a silver iron tin sulfosat, is very rare species. This specimen features several sub-mm but eye-visible brown crystals clearly contrasted upon the sparkling Franckeite matrix. Yes, it's a micro, but a very hard to find example of a species that is only found in two places in the world. This is the Ag-rich end member of the Rhodostannite-Toyohaite solid solution series. A very rare mineral originally described from the Toyoha mine in Japan where it occurred in microscopic grains only. For the first time, a new occurrence in Argentina provides eye-visible crystals of this species (to 1 mm), and associated with other rare minerals like Pirquitasite, Cylindrite and Fizelyite-Ramdohrite (probably present but not identified as such by analysis). The mineral has a "pseudo-cubic" shape and looks like Pyrrhotite. Only very few specimens with crystals were recovered, mostly ending up with the specialist researcher Dr. Werner Paar in Austria for further study; and chances to find additional material are said to be almost none. Crystals from this pocket were micro-probed in his lab, and almost exactly corresponds to the end member composition