A sharp crystal of lazurite, sitting right up on the marble matrix. A representative miniature for this species. Lazurite is the blue component of the 'gemstone' (or, more usually, decorative rock) Lapis Lazuli, which is a lazurite-calcite-pyrite rock that has been mined as a gem material for some 9,000 years. Before the 2021 redefinition, all lazurites were only sulfide-rich varieties of haüyne and not a separate species.

A fine lazurite specimen from the Type Locality: Sar-e Sang, Afghanistan. A group of very sharp blue-violet lazurite crystals, one of them dominant and very aerially diposed, contrasting white the calcite (marble) matrix, with larger crystals within the marble. They show dodecahedron faces and cube faces on the main crystal.
It must be said to be strict, that these crystals are really sulfide-rich haüyne. In the words of the recently published article about Sar-e Sang in Mineralogical Record (Vol. 45, 3), all specimens analyzed from Sar-e Sang contain some sulfide, but is nevertheless sulfate-dominant. Note that in nature is not described any sulfide-dominant lazurite.