FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Gagat Minerals]

Hello - I asked the question on Mindat, but no answers: Did anybody hear something about a new apophyllite/stilbite find from Ametista do Sul, RS, Brazil last year? If you go to Mindat into 'Discussions' and 'General', I downloaded there on Friday the 14 (of January) a short movie from a mineral dealer from London (with permission), topic is called

"new find of apophyllite in Brazil 2021????????!!!"

- I would be very grateful for any comments and information.
regards
Kristof

[alfredo]

I saw a wonderful OLD specimen of apophyllite from that region, but am unaware of any new finds specifically from last year.

However, new finds of the typical trap rock minerals should not be unexpected from the vast Paraná flood basalts, which are in many ways similar to the Deccan Traps in India from which most of the world's zeolite and apophyllite specimens come from. The reason we see so many more zeolites from India than from southern Brazil is just due to the enormous amount of quarrying done in India by hand tools, thanks to very cheap labor and a dire shortage of wood for construction. In the Paraná flood basalts of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, any new construction project has the potential to yield zeolite specimens, so we could expect new finds at any time.

[Gagat Minerals]

All traps are similar to each other - because they are traps :). On the other hand, the differences in minerals from vugs are sometimes essential. A few years ago, two Polish guys found very similar zeolites in Ethiopia, in next huge trap province (Ethiopia-Yemen). We can expect one day the same from Antarctica. In India - during the rainy season, local farmers store water in deep wells carved in solid basalt and it must last until the next rainfall. Unfortunately, hardly anyone believes that the specimens from India signed as 'Maharashtra', 'Nashik', 'Aurangabad' or 'Jalgaon' actually mean anything. Long ago I gave up on trying to get any more detailed information from Indian dealers, never found out anything. But Brazil is different - and I know the story of railways & roads project, the army's participation in blowing rocks with explosives etc.
We will see what comes in the future...