Detailed Description

Excellent miniature of good-sized bladed crystals of barite with vanadinite crystals perched mostly along the edges of the barites, creating a very aesthetic effect. The longest barite blade is 3.9 cm. The vanadinite crystals are lustrous and sparkly – with a loupe you can see that they are translucent, and a brownish red colour – slightly more reddish than a beer bottle.

About the Vanadinite/Barite Workings at Coud'a

The Coud'a workings involve a lot of hard hand-tunneling through solid rock – it’s incredible the hard work involved. Once an undergound working is depleted or too dangerous, the miners start again from surface, and tunnel straight down through hard rock for 8 weeks to arrive in the producing zone again. Only once in a while do they come out with specimens of this fine quality. If you'd like to see more about the Mibladen Mining District, including photos of some of the vanadinite workings, see Morocco: The Northern Sahara and the Atlas Mountains (Part 2). (Note, the big hole depicted in the first photograph in the other half ot the article - see Part 1 -  is a barite/vanadinite specimen-mining operation at Coud'a.)