Nigerian topaz specimens are not easy to see. This specimen shows a sharp crystal, transparent, with a delicate bluish tone. With well-defined prismatic faces and dipyramidal and prism terminal faces, curious for their development, which look like a twin. A true gem of this mining area in which there are many dispersed deposits.

Size: 3 x 1.8 x 1.2 cm.
Found in ca. 1980.

Group of elbaite crystals, in parallel growth, with striated prismatic faces, deep green color and good luster. From the former Manchion collection, with the characteristic label.

Size: 5.4 x 2.6 x 2.4 cm.
Found in 1989.

Col. Manchion (Barcelona) #483.

Very aesthetic aggregate of strontianite showing ciclic twinned crystals. Very brilliant, translucent and with a defined faces and edges. Accompanied by dolomite. This deposit, worked by opencut mines, in the past was also worked for talc. These specimens are a classic of the Austrian and European mineralogy.

Size: 5.7 x 3.8 x 3.6 cm.

Classic locality

Very aesthetic aggregate of strontianite showing ciclic twinned crystals. Translucent and with a defined faces and edges. Accompanied by dolomite. This deposit, worked by opencut mines, in the past was also worked for talc. These specimens are a classic of the Austrian and European mineralogy.

Size: 4.2 x 4 x 3.7 cm.

Classic locality

Very aesthetic aggregate of strontianite showing ciclic twinned crystals. Very brilliant, translucent and with a defined faces and edges. Accompanied by dolomite. This deposit, worked by opencut mines, in the past was also worked for talc. These specimens are a classic of the Austrian and European mineralogy.

Size: 4.5 × 4 × 3.8 cm

Classic locality

Kunzite crystal, with striated faces, with good color and transparence. A gemmy specimen.

Size: 4.5 x 2.8 x 2.7 cm.
Found in ca. 1997.

Excellent specimen of a quartz crystal with inclusions. In this specimen we can see green and reddish inclusions, most likely due to growths of chlorite and iron oxides in the growing crystal. A very interesting and aesthetic piece. From the Joan Astor collection.

Size: 5.8 x 5.5 x 4.5 cm.
Found in ca. 1975.

Col. Joan Astor.

Excellent specimen of a quartz crystal with geometric inclusions. In this specimen we can see green and reddish zonations, most likely due to growths of chlorite and iron oxides on the facets of the growing crystal. A very interesting and aesthetic piece. From the Joan Astor collection.

Size: 6.5 x 4 x 3 cm.
Found in ca. 1975.

Col. Joan Astor.

Group of fluorite crystals from this classic English mine, presents the shapes of the cube, interpenetrated and some twinned. Good transparence and very characteristic green color. This sample is photographed in some books that Joan Astor published in issuu [online pág. 34]. It was acquired in 1980 from Bailey Minerals (Ángel Jesús Talabán García, Segovia 1942-Madrid 2007). A very aesthetic piece.

Size: 6.8 x 3.5 x 3.5 cm.
Main crystal: 9 mm. edge/arista
Found in 1970-80's.

Col. Joan Astor.
Fluorescent under long wave UV

Group of prismatic fluorapatite crystals, with faces of the prism and the hexagonal dipyramids. The transparence and brilliance areexcellent and the yellow color is very intense. This specimen was photographed in some books that Joan Astor published in issuu [online page 86]. It is accompanied in the matrix with hyaline opal aggregates. It was acquired in 1980 from Bailey Minerals (Ángel Jesús Talabán García, Segovia 1942-Madrid 2007). A very aesthetic and good size piece.

Size: 8 x 5 x 4 cm.
Main crystal: 2 cm.
Found in 1970-80's.

Col. Joan Astor.

Showy specimen in the form of divergent stalactitic aggregates, with a patina of manganese oxides on the back side. Aerial and good sized. A very curious piece of this mine from Murcia.

Size: 8 x 7 x 6.5 cm.

Col. J.A. Robles (La Unión, Murcia)

Lorenzenite is a rare sodium titanium silicate found in pegmatites and nepheline syenites. A lustrous, sharp, chocolate-brown crystals in matrix on this excellent specimen from the Joan Astor Collection.

Size: 4.5 x 4 x 3 cm.
Main crystal: 1.8 cm.
Found in 1994.

Col. Joan Astor.

Excellent specimen of rhodochrosite from this classic American locality from where not many specimens are available, unless they appear in former collections. This piece entered the Joan Astor collection in 1976 and was acquired from Joan Montal, a well-known old dealer from Vilafranca del Penedés (Barcelona). Several rhombohedral rhodo crystals, very well defined, with a very aesthetic pink color. With a globular aggregate of a second generation of rhodo. It stands out on the matrix of quartz crystals. A unique piece.

Size: 5 x 4 x 3 cm.
Found in 1970's.

Col. Joan Astor.

Alurgite is a variety of purple muscovite. It was classified 1959 as an intermediate variety between leucophyllite and muscovite. A study of Knurr and Bailey (1986, online) showed that the alurgite, treated as muscovite-2M1 with Mn, contains trivalent manganese (in contrast to divalent Mn-containing "manganophyllite"). This specimen of good size shows us an aggregate of micaceous crystals, with an intense brilliance and good color, in a quartzite rocky matrix. A rare variety of muscovite.

Size: 10 x 8.5 x 6 cm.

Rich aggregates of laminar and tabular roweite crystals, with an exceptional quality for the species. The crystals of this rare calcium and manganese borate show very well defined forms, with a light brown color and excellent definition. The quality of these specimens is far superior to that previously known for the species. Along with them, and giving a very aesthetic touch, a group of olshanskyite crystals, a calcium borate, of a snowy white and with parallel growths. There is no doubt that this specimen is very worthy in any mineral collection and display.

Size: 5.5 x 4.5 x 4 cm.

Very aesthetic specimen of fluorite. It shows the cubic shape, with polysynthetic growths on faces. The color very uniform, a delicate violet tone, with geometric zoning on edges, more intense. Excellent brilliance, transparence and very well defined faces and edges. An exceptional piece from Santa Eulalia and the Joan Astor collection, acquired by this great Catalan photographer and collector at the EXPOMINER Barcelona mineral show in 1981.

Size: 5.2 x 3.5 x 3.5 cm.
Main crystal: 2.4 cm.
Found in 1980's.

Col. Joan Astor,

On a matrix of sulphides, an iridescent patina of covellite, very brilliant, with deep blue color. From a classic locality for the Spanish mineralogy. This specimen belongs from the Arguijo collection. A rarity.

Size: 5.6 x 4.5 x 2.8 cm.
Found in 1980's.

Col. A. Arguijo (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona).
Classic locality

his good sized specimen from the late 80s belongs from the Arguijo collection, and it was mined in this famous "onubense" mine. It is a sulphide matrix partially covered by brilliant covellite microcrystals, very defined and visible. It has an intense metallic blue iridescence and this very characteristic color. It is accompanied by numerous crystals of native sulphur with curved faces, brilliance, translucent and showing a delicate yellow tone. It was mined from a sporadic finding in the Corta Atalaya, Minas de Riotinto. A unique occasion to obtain one of these "old" specimens.

Size: 7.4 x 5.7 x 5.2 cm.
Found in 1980's.

Col. A. Arguijo (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona).
Classic locality

Good sized cerussite crystal, with cyclic twinning, complete, and polysynthetic growths. Good color and defined faces, disposed very aerially on a matrix with baryte crystals. A very aesthetic Moroccan classic. With handwritten label.

Size: 9.2 x 4.2 x 3.5 cm.
Main crystal: 3.2 cm.
Found in 1980's.

Col. L. Daunis (Barcelona).
Fluorescent under long wave UV

Group of quartz crystals, with defined rhombohedron forms and parallel growth (faden). Excellent brilliance and transparence. These are specimens from a Moroccan mine that is poorly represented in collections.

Size: 5.6 x 4.8 x 1.7 cm.
Found in 2019.

Group of quartz crystals, with defined rhombohedron forms and some with more development faces, poorly developed prisms. Excellent brilliance and transparence. These are specimens from a Moroccan mine that is poorly represented in collections.

Size: 7.5 x 4.5 x 3 cm.
Found in 2019.

A very aesthetic miniature. Orthoclase specimen that shows two crystals with the Karlsbad twin. An unusual piece for this classic Spanish locality. From the Joan Astor collection (Barcelona), former Joan Abella collection (Sabadell).

Size: 3 x 2 x 2 cm.
Found in 1990's.

Col. Joan Astor, Col. Joan Abella.
Classic locality

These rare specimens of hedenbergite-actinolite correspond to those cited by L. Tomàs (Els Minerals de Catalunya, year 1920) and E. Bareche (Els Minerals de Catalunya, Segle XX, year 2005: "Where it really appears in large quantities is inside the well they made near the creek in the mines of Can Serrat, road from Hostalric to Arbúcies, in the district of Sant Feliu de Buixalleu. It is shiny, greenish in color; we collected and kept specimens that were examined by Don Ramón Adan de Yarza, which confirmed our identification". It is a skarn formed by the contact of the granodiorites and the limestone of the Paleozoic. From the former Arguijo collection.

Size: 7 x 6 x 5 cm.
Found in 1970's.

Col. A. Arguijo (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona)

Some unusual specimens from the Oujda area, specifically from Touissit. These are aggregates of sphalerite crystals, of an intense brown color, with reddish transparencies, good luster, which are dotted with small chalcopyrite/pyrite crystals, disposed on a dolomite matrix, with an aesthetic contrast. Just arrived (March 2020) after our trip through Moroccan lands.

Size: 7 x 4.4 x 3 cm.
Main crystal: 1 cm.
Found in 02/2020

Some unusual specimens from the Oujda area, specifically from Touissit. These are aggregates of sphalerite crystals, some of them twinned, of an intense brown color, with reddish transparencies, good luster, which are dotted with small chalcopyrite and pyrite crystals, disposed on a dolomite matrix, with an aesthetic contrast. Just arrived (March 2020) after our trip through Moroccan lands.

Size: 5.6 x 5.5 x 3.2 cm.
Main crystal: 1.1 cm.
Found in 02/2020