Wulfenite

This showy, good-sized cabinet specimen of butterscotch Wulfenite is from the mines around Touissit, in Jerada Province, Morocco, a locality about 100 km inland from the Mediterranean and adjacent to the Algerian boarder.  The display of wonderfully crystallised Wulfenite is stunning, with crystals lining every vug and opening in a highly porous Quartz gossan.  This matrix may at first sight appear fragile, but a light flick of the finger produces a metallic ring, indicating its solid and hard nature.  The Wulfenite forms thin, bevel-edged plates to 1.4 cm wide, with the very occasional plate a little larger.  In profile the habit is essentially square but modified slightly to the octagon due to the corners being truncated. Each crystal averages between 1.5 and 2 mm deep.  All crystals are opaque with a surface of mild translucency and, although mainly rich butterscotch-toffee yellow, grade to caramel-yellow and acidic banana.  A gorgeous Moroccan Wulfenite.