FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[justomstuff]

This was brought back during WW2. I can't verify the specific location it was found because they have all passed already. This was also up at the college here and four geologist said they had never seen anything like it. They determined it was sulfer and carbonite. Said I need to take it to the mineralogist at UGA. I am just trying to get as much info on this as I can and it seems difficult to find people that can help with this rare specimen. Any help you could offer would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Tom Nastav

[John S. White]

It very much appears to be sulfur with calcite crystals growing on it from one of the sulfur mines in Sicily, Italy.

[Herman van Dennebroek]

Most of the specimens from Sicily are a combination of sulfur and aragonite.
I go for sulfur partly coated with aragonite.

Most of the aragonite gave a orange-rose fluorescence in long wave UV-light.

It's not possible to give a exact locality, but most of the mines are located in the neighbourhood between Agrigento and Enna with the town Caltanisetta in between

[John S. White]

I mentined calcite because it is known from there and it was mentioned that it is a carbonate. I will confess that aragonite is a likely guess.

I should also say that this site does not suggest values for minerals.

[GneissWare]

I agree with the determination of Sulfur and Aragonite -- it is a classic association from Sicily. If you want to see other examples try:

https://www.mindat.org/photosearch.php?frm_id=mls&cform_is_valid=1&minname=sulfur&cf_mls_page=1&region=sicily&sort=&submit_mls=Search

[Pete Modreski]

Tom, and if you search more online, you'll see many photos of specimens of sulfur, both with aragonite (more common) and calcite. This combination occurs at other worldwide places besides Sicily, but that is the most common locality for it--especially I would think, for a specimen acquired back during the WWII time period. For example, see a number of photos at:
https://www.minfind.com/mineral-22356.html
I should add that I think most of us would agree that a specimen like yours is nice, but not particularly "rare".
Sincerely, Pete Modreski

[Riccardo Modanesi]

Hi to everybody, hi Justomstuff!
I also agree with everybody here: in my opinion it's sulphur eith aragonite, the mineralogical association is typical from the province Agrigento in Sicily. Try with a UV lamp, I mean the Wood light: if it fluoresces in pink, it's aragonite, if the colour is paler (towards white or yellowish-white, the pink basis is always there!) it's calcite.
Greetings from Italy by Riccardo.