FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Christophe Gobin]

Hello everyone,
The last weeks I have been offered through the social medias, some mineral specimens in Pakistan, as allegedly new blue herderites from Badakhshan in Afghanistan. I bought a few of them and sent them to the lab for analysis. They are actually celestines. The Pakistani dealer told me that he sold also to a US dealer so be careful if you are offered some of them. Run some analyzes because it will be probably celestines and it is not at all the same value.
The Pakistani dealer very active in the social medias is well-known through facebook.
He is selling a lot of specimens from Pakistan/Afghanistan. And he just dispute the analyses from the Museum…. I am running some extra analysis in a second lab just as a proof even if I know the final result. He is supposed to wait on his side some analyzes from this US dealer. If and when I have them, I will publish them too, whatever the result.
I would be more than happy if it was confirmed to be herderites because it would be worldclass specimens but I don’t dream.

I am not posting this to spread bad words but it is my responsibility to warn the mineralogical community to be careful. If, of course, other analyzes show that the 1st test was wrong, I will update this publication. But again it would be a really good surprise.
Here are the lab results from Cristiano Ferraris and Giancarlo Parodi from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

[Christophe Gobin]

About the coloring mechanisms in celestine:

http://www.minsocam.org/msa/collectors_corner/arc/celestite.htm
(link normalized by FMF)

[Pete Richards]

There's a tremendous difference between the colors in the photos and the colors in the specimens shown with the spectrum! The colors in the photos are so strongly blue and yellow as to look unreal. The crystals certainly look like celestine, however.

[James Catmur]

Look like Celestine to me too

[Christophe Gobin]

Just received the identification of the second sample from Federico Pezzotta, Mineralogy Curator at Museo di Storia Naturale of Milano.
Of course confirmed too as celestine.

For my part, an arrangement could be found with the Pakistani dealer. Maybe this second analysis will allow him to find reason and accept that it is celestine.