Tantalite-(Fe): Equador, Rio Grande Do Norte Region, Brazil

Description

Species: Tantalite-(Fe)

Locality: Equador Pegmatite District, Rio Grande do Norte Province, Brazil

Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.2 x 2.4 cm.

SOLD

Northern Brazil’s Equador Pegmatite District and the neighboring Parelhas region have known for nearly one hundred years as the source of superb crystallized examples of unusual Niobium-Tantalum species, including tantalite, manganotantalite, columbite, microlite, and simpsonite. This is an excellent large (9.4 cm) well-formed, lustrous black tantalite crystal from the Equador District. The crystal shows classic the orthorhombic morphology typical of many of these Nb-Ta oxides, and is quite large for a complete crystal from this classic district. The previous owner had this labeled as “Tantalite-Mn” and indicated it was a twin, but as far as I can tell this is most likely an untwinned Tantalite-(Fe) crystal. A fine example a sought-after pegmatite rarity from Brazil. Weight is 639 grams. Annette Slade photo.