FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Origin Gems]

Hi from the future, We actually have seen this exact specimen in person in Namak mandi with an old time dealer and photographed it, he showed us this and said it was lapis with peridot, but he was not willing to let go of it for any price saying he wants to keep it for now. Its a bunch of lazurite, some pyrite on a base of calcite, then you got the big question of the green gems. This was apart of a bigger lot out of one pocket in Badakhshan and the dealer said he sold the rest and kept this one. Its not that big, we took it to a lab in Peshawar for a third opinion after convincing the dealer, the labs run by a FGA, he wasn't getting a reading on his handheld Raman, the seller gave us very little time that we could get any definitive diagnosis as there are other labs also in Namak mandi with more better machines. The FGA was suspecting it could be dioptase, but peridot is not ruled out however geologically its a bit strange. If the seller agrees to sell it later on I will update once we take it back to our own lab for further testing. I have attached the photograph if anyone has any idea please do let us know as the dealer doesn't want to let go anytime soon.