Rosell Minerales

Specimen of anhydrite formed by numerous prismatic to tabular crystals, well defined and interpenetrated. On the back we can see the matrix formed by dolomite and brilliant pyrite crystals. Specimens from this Italian mine, located north of Boccheggiano, were collected at the end of the 20th century. The mine worked from the early 1980s, currently the mine is closed.

Size: 11 x 5.3 x 5 cm.
Main crystal: 1.3 cm.

Brilliant specimen formed by a druse of defined tarpezohedral crystals of grossular, hessonite variety. Intense color, shine and transparence. With the handwritten label from the Joan Astor collection, indicating that this specimen was purchased at Expominer mineral show to Benvenuti Gianni.

Found in ±1979.

Col. Joan Astor (Barcelona).

In a tuff andesitic volcanic rocky matrix we can observe several cavities that contain aggregates of colorless, bright clinoptilolite crystals. Specimens from this Italian locality are not common.

Size: 6.7 x 5.6 x 4 cm.
Main crystal: 1.5 mm.

Specimens from this locality, located in the south of the island of Sardinia, are very rare on the market. This specimen is formed by cavities lined with prismatic barrel-shaped crystals. Intense green to yellowish color. The piece comes from the Manchion collection and was acquired from Dr. Joan Viñals in 1989.

Size: 6.1 x 4.1 x 2.9 cm.
Found in ±1989.

Col. Manchion (Barcelona).

Very good specimen of epidote from this classic Alpine Italian locality. Several epidote crystals with a yellowish green color, with transparence and very well defined. They are accompanied by numerous prismatic crystals of diopside, also very well defined, with transparence, brilliance and a very characteristic olive green color. Good size and quality specimen for display. It belongs from the former collection of Ezio and Manuela Bernabé, with the typewritten label, we will send with the piece.

Size: 9.6 x 5.1 x 3.5 cm.
Main crystal: 1 cm.

Col. Ezio & Manuela Bernabé (Riccione, Italia).
Classic locality

Exceptional very good sized specimen of humite, a rare magnesium fluorosilicate, from the type locality for the species: Monte Somma. In the piece we can see numerous crystals of an orange tone, defined and some with rounded shapes, brilliant and with transparence. They are accompanied by micaceous phlogopite crystals and white aggregates of sodalite.
Humite is a species closely related to norbergite, chondrodite and clinohumite. These minerals are very difficult to distinguish. Humite appears to have a smaller field of stability than clinohumite, chondrodite and norbergite. Humite is often associated with one or more of the other species of the humite group, as intergrowths.

Size: 7.3 x 5.3 x 2.6 cm.

Type Locality

Brilliant specimen formed by a druse of defined tarpezohedral crystals of grossular, hessonite variety. Intense color, shine and transparence. It is accompanied by groups of green clinochlorine crystals.

Size: 5.2 x 4.1 x 2 cm.
Main crystal: 5 mm.

Very brilliant pyrohedron cluster, of good size and with well defined faces and edges. With some hematite brilliant lamellar crystals. From this classic Italian locality. It belongs to the Joan Astor collection (Barcelona), with a handwritten and typewritten label.

Size: 5.4 x 4.4 x 3 cm.
Main crystal: 2.2 cm.
Found in ± 1975.

Col. Joan Astor (Barcelona).
Classic locality

Very brilliant pyrohedron cluster, of good size and with well defined faces and edges. From this classic Italian locality. It belongs to the Joan Astor collection (Barcelona), with a handwritten and typewritten label.

Size: 4 x 3.5 x 3.2 cm.
Found in ± 1974.

Col. Joan Astor (Barcelona).
Classic locality

Very aesthetic specimen from this classic Italian mine. Several magnetite crystals with dodecahedron forms, some of them very interestingly distorted crystalography, with intense luster and very well defined. It is accompanied by octahedral pyrite crystals. It comes from the Joan Astor collection (Barcelona), with a handwritten label and typewritten box.

Size: 7.8 x 7.3 x 3 cm.
Main crystal: 1.3 cm.
Found in ± 1978.

Col. Joan Astor (Barcelona).
Classic locality

A brilliant specimen of epidote, brilliant, transparent, richly faceted crystals with a very aesthetic olive green color. With some diopside crystals. The beauty of these specimens is incomparable for the species. It comes from the Joan Astor collection (Barcelona), with a handwritten label and typewritten box.

Size: 7.3 x 4.7 x 3 cm.
Main crystal: 1.2 cm.
Found in ± 1978.

Col. Joan Astor (Barcelona).
Classic locality

Pyrite specimens from the Elba Island are an Italian classic. But specimens of pyrite, richly faceted, sharp and brilliant included in serpentine are very rare. Undammaged. The label of this specimen indicates that it comes from this famous island. It belongs to the Joan Astor collection (Barcelona), with a handwritten and typewritten label.

Size: 6.4 x 6.1 x 4.7 cm.
Main crystal: 1.1 x 1.3 cm.
Found in ±1975.

Col. J. Astor, Barcelona.

Radial aggregates of ludwigite crystals, a rare magnesium iron borate. It is accompanied by pyrite. Usually many of these specimens have been acidified, this is not the case. It belongs to the collection of Joan Astor, with a handwritten label.

Size: 7.8 x 5.3 x 2.4 cm.
Found in ±1979.

Col. J. Astor, Barcelona.

Diopside specimens from Castellaccio are difficult to find today. They show aggregates of radiated prismatic diopside crystals with a lavender hue due to manganese content. It is the best known species found in rodingite (a metasomatic rock) from this Italian quarry. Various analyzes have shown the presence of Co (0.5% by weight in CoO) and Mn (1.5% by weight in MnO). Associated minerals include perovskite, grossular, andradite, magnetite, titanite, apatite, pyrrhotite, and calcite (Bedognè et al., 2006). With an interesting label, from the Naïf mineral dealer (Bormio), but I have not found more information about.

Bedognè, F., Montrasio, A., Sciesa, E. (2006): I minerali della medio-alta Valtellina delle Orobie e della Val Poschiavo. Aggiornamenti sulle altre località della provincia di Sondrio. Tipografia Bettini, Sondrio, 255 pp.

Size: 7.5 x 5.1 x 4.5 cm.
Main crystal: 1.3 cm.
Found in ±1975.

Col. J. Astor, Barcelona.

These Italian calcite specimens were labeled, decades ago, as vaterite, a polymorph of calcite and aragonite. Hexagonal shapes, with well-defined, flattened and interpenetrating crystals, led to this assumption. They were obtained from a excavation works that revealed a large fissure filled with gneiss blocks of various sizes cemented by crystallized calcite. This calcite appeared as milky white pseudohexagonal prismatic crystals. This specimen belongs to the Joan Astor collection (Barcelona), with a handwritten label and another typewritten.

Size: 7.2 x 5.5 x 4.7 cm.
Main crystal: 2.2 x 0.9 cm.
Found in ±1976.

Col. J. Astor, Barcelona.

Radial aggregates of reddish-brown sursassite, bright and on the quartz matrix. It is accompanied by orange-yellow aggregates of tinzenite crystals, together with fibrous masses of light yellow ganophyllite.

Size: 5 x 3 x 1 cm.
Found in ca. 1979.

Col. Joan Astor (Barcelona).
Type Locality

Really fine specimen for this rare species. The balangeroite is a magnesium, iron anfd manganese silicate, only found in a few places worldwide. The serpentine Poggio San Vittore quarry, which were the best samples has been found and it is the type locality for the species, is abandoned since 1990. The mineral usually appears included in the serpentine matrix and only few fibers are aerial. In this specimen, fibers are totally aerial and with a good length.

Size: 4.2 x 4 x 3.4 cm.
Main crystal: 3.2 cm.
Found in ca. 1985.

Col. J. Astor (Barcelona).
Type Locality

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.

Group of prismatic baryte crystals, doubly terminated and well defined, with good luster and transparency. They are disposed very aerially on the matrix. The history of the Silius mines begins in the first decades of the 20th century, particularly in 1916, when the first research permits were registered for the galena. It was in the early 1950s that the focus was on major fluorite outcrops and in 1953 the first company to obtain the mining concession for the exploitation of the rich fluors of fluorite and galena was created, the Mineraria Silius SpA, active until 2006.

Size: 6.5 x 5.5 x 4.5 cm.
Main crystal: 20 mm.

Group of very sharp hematite crystals, well defined edges and faces, intense metallic gray color, almost black, with aesthetic iridescent reflections. Very interesting historical piece, from the former Manchion collection.

Size: 5.7 x 5.1 x 4 cm.
Main crystal: 1.4 cm.
Found in 01/1984.

#174 Col. Manchion (Barcelona).
Classic locality

A classic specimen from the Alpine valley of Aosta. Group of very defined crystals of grossular, with an exceptional brightness and very intense orange color. They show faces of the dodecahedron and the trapezohedron. They are accompanied by aggregates of olive green chlorite. A very bright and aesthetic piece.

Size: 8.5 x 7 x 3.5 cm.
Main crystal: 4 - 5 mm.

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

Glaucophane is an unusual species member of the amphibol group. This Italian locality is known worldwide for the good specimens of this species. It is usually covered with calcite, which once removed shows sculptural aggregates of striated tabular to prismatic translucent crystals, with an intense bluish-gray color, almost violet. In the cavities appear small orange crystals of rutile and groups of chromian muscovite (var. fuchsite). Pyrite crystals also can be found. A good sized and very aesthetic combination from this classic locality.

Size: 8 x 6.5 x 4.5 cm.
Main crystal: 14 mm.

Glaucophane is an unusual species member of the amphibol group. This Italian locality is known worldwide for the good specimens of this species. It is usually covered with calcite, which once removed shows sculptural aggregates of striated tabular to prismatic translucent crystals, with an intense bluish-gray color, almost violet. In the cavities appear small orange crystals of rutile and groups of chromian muscovite (var. fuchsite). Pyrite crystals also can be found. A good sized and very aesthetic combination from this classic locality.

Size: 7.3 x 6.5 x 4.2 cm.
Main crystal: 23 mm.

Glaucophane is an unusual species member of the amphibol group. This Italian locality is known worldwide for the good specimens of this species. It is usually covered with calcite, which once removed shows sculptural aggregates of striated tabular to prismatic translucent crystals, with an intense bluish-gray color, almost violet. In the cavities appear small orange crystals of rutile and groups of chromian muscovite (var. fuchsite). Pyrite crystals also can be found. A good sized and very aesthetic combination from this classic locality.

Size: 7 x 6.4 x 5.4 cm.
Main crystal: 18 mm.

Very bright specimen formed by numerous hexagonal shape pyrrhotite crystals, accompanied by pyrite. A pyrite mine owned by Solmine. Closed before 1984. An old specimen from an Italian locality from where it is very difficult find specimens.

Size: 7.3 x 4.5 x 3.2 cm.
Main crystal: 10 x 8 mm.
Found in 1990's

Col. J.M. Manchión (Barcelona) - #525, Miró, 1991