Wulfenite (ATES-0024)

specimen number:
9273127

location:
Touissit, Jerada, Morocco

description:

Beautiful lemon yellow partly gemmy lustrous thin bladed crystals of wulfenite measuring to 1.0 cm in size aesthetic across the top of matrix. This is in really good condition. Excellent for the species from this long closed locality.

The Touissit mining district, situated in the Jerada Province near the Algerian border within eastern Morocco, is a legendary underground mining complex world-renowned for producing some of the world's finest mineral specimens of yellow-to-amber wulfenite, cerussite, anglesite, and azurite. Geologically, this major Mississippi Valley-Type (MVT) lead-zinc deposit is localized within a thick sequence of highly porous and fractured Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) dolomites that overlie an impermeable Liassic basement. Mineralization occurred when basinal hydrothermal fluids migrated along major regional fault systems, dissolving the carbonate host rocks and precipitating primary galena and sphalerite, which later underwent intense, deep-reaching supergene oxidation to create spectacular pockets filled with beautifully crystallized secondary lead and copper minerals. Historically, modern exploitation was initiated by French interests in the early twentieth century, with the Compagnie Miniere de Touissit (CMT) organizing large-scale industrial extraction starting in the 1920s. The mines operated at peak capacity for several decades, establishing the region as Morocco's premier lead producer, until the depletion of economically viable primary ore bodies led to the systematic closure of the main industrial mining operations between 1998 and 2002.

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