Barite (ATES-13)

specimen number:
9273088

location:
Jebel Ouichane, Guelaia Cercle, Nador, Oriental, Morocco

description:
A lovely cluster of lustrous translucent blue bladed barite crystals across the top of matrix. This is in terrific condition. Crystallized completely all around.

The Jebel Ouichane mining district, located near Nador within the Beni Bou Ifrour mountain range of the eastern Rif belt in northeastern Morocco, was a highly productive iron-ore center exploited via large-scale underground chambers, tracking adits, and deep surface quarries. Geologically, the deposit represents the highest-grade iron skarn district in Morocco, formed during the Neogene period around 7.0 million years ago when calc-alkaline to shoshonitic magmatic intrusions cut into Jurassic and Cretaceous marine limestones. This contact metamorphism and subsequent hydrothermal fluid circulation triggered intense replacement of the carbonate host rocks, precipitating massive orebodies dominated by magnetite, hematite, goethite, and pyrite, with late-stage low-temperature fluids generating notable localized pockets of blade-like blue barite within a calcite and siderite gangue. Historically, the major iron deposit was discovered in 1905 by Spanish geologist Alfonso del Vallo, leading to the commencement of organized commercial extraction by the Compania Espanola de Minas del Rif in 1914. Following Moroccan independence, the state-owned corporate entity SEFERIF assumed control of operations, managing the sprawling industrial complex and its iconic San Daniel processing plant built in 1932 until deep structural depletion, rising sulfur content, and a global raw materials crisis forced the permanent closure of the mines in 1976 after yielding approximately 60 to 65 million tons of high-grade ore.

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