Chlorargyrites from Morocco - NEW!
One of our recent web updates included eight specimens of Chlorargyrite from a 2004 find at the Imiter Mine in Morocco. The specimens are quite spectacular for both richness of coverage, and crystal size, as well as being an attractive lime green colour with a superb sparkling adamantine lustre. We thought you might like some background information on these specimens......
Chlorargyrite is a rare Silver Chloride, in the Halide class. It occurs in the oxidized zone above Silver deposits through supergene enrichment processes, commonly preserved in arid climates such as found in Morocco. Supergene enrichment involves hydrothermal fluids leaching elements from soluble minerals and redepositing the elements as different minerals. Part of the Isometric crystal group, the Chlorargyrite crystals are of the hexoctagonal crystal system, they may be cubic in shape or columnar in habit. It is however relatively rare to find well formed crystals of Chlorargyrite; the mineral tends to form massive crusts, or stalactitic forms, and are often decomposed to powdery crusts.
Chlorargyrite is also known as Cerargyrite as used in Dana's System of Mineralogy, Vol II (1951) and Sinkankas's Mineralogy for Amateurs (1964). The type locality is Marienberg, Saxony, Germany, and other notable locations include Broken Hill, NSW, Australia; Atacama region, Chile; Saxony, Germany; and several USA states (Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah...) It forms series with Bromyrite (AgBr). Silver halides should be kept in the dark as they are light sensitive and will change colour to violet or black.
Imiter Mine is well known as a Silver mine, with most people knowing the mine for its Acanthite specimens, of which recent finds, particularly in 2005 have made it an up and coming locality.
Imiter Mine is located 7 kilometers from Imiter, and about 25 km from Boumaine du Dades, Ouarzazate province, in central Morocco. It is within the Anti-Altas domain, whose main topolographical feature is the Anti-Atlas Mountains. The mountains have a Precambrian or Achaean basement, and a cover of sub-Precambrian and Palaeozoic rocks. It is bound to the West African Shield. The volcano-sedimentary bedrock is favourable to polymetallic mineralisations such as the Imiter Silver deposit and the Bou Azzer deposit well known for its Cobaltoan minerals.
After Phosphates, Silver is Morocco’s second most significant mineral product. It appears in the country in two types of deposits – as a by-product from base metals operations, and as the dominant mineral in ore bodies such as at Imiter. Much of the country’s silver production comes from the Imiter mine.
The specimens we have in our update are all very rich with the Chlorargyrite crystals encrusting vuggy Limonitic matrix. In several of the specimens there are Galena crystals, partially altered, but often with some shiny cleaved surfaces. The Galena commonly forms a core on which the Limonite has overgrown.
The Chlorargyrite crystals on these specimens are a lime green colour, and often translucent, all with a superb adamantine lustre giving the specimens lots of sparkle. The crystals are generally well formed measuring up to 3mm, becoming more massive in places. The well formed crystals are often slightly elongate or columnar.
The specimens in our update all came from one limited find at the Imiter Mine in 2004. The richness of the specimens combined with the colour, superb lustre and well formed crystal shape make these high quality specimens of this rare mineral.
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