Lazurite

specimen number:
9892106

location:
Ladjuar Medam, Sar-e-Sang, Kuran wa Munjan, Badakhshan, Afghanistan

description:
A blue blocky crystal of lazurite 1.3 cm in diameter embedded up on a white calcite matrix. In great condition.

The Ladjuar Medam deposit at Sar-e-Sang in the Kuran wa Munjan district of Badakhshan, Afghanistan, is widely recognized as the oldest continuously operated gemstone mining district in the world, with a history spanning approximately 6,000 to 9,000 years from antiquity to the present day. Geologically, the deposit is situated within the high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Hindu Kush mountains, where lapis lazuli forms lens-like bodies within ancient marble and calc-silicate skarn sequences via intense metasomatic reactions between intrusive granitoids and carbonate rocks. The primary deep blue components of the rock are rich aggregates of the mineral lazurite (a complex sodium aluminum silicate sulfate), intimately associated with white calcite, golden-yellow pyrite grains, and various accessory silicates such as diopside and forsterite.

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