Afghanite

Is afghanite rare? It’s very rare — it can only be found in a handful of localities around the world. Afghanite’s scarcity and beauty make it a highly sought-after collector’s stone. Afghanite contains hydrous sodium, potassium, calcium, chloride, sulfate, carbonate alumino-silicate mineral. It’s a very complex mineral with an even more unusual crystal structure.

This mineral ranges in color from light sky blue to a dark navy and first identified in 1968. With a very close resemblance to Lazurite, and occurring together in the same deposits, Afghanite is distinguished by its unique crystal habit. Afghanite is named after its most significant locality in northern Afghanistan. The only significantly important deposit is located in the Sar-e Sang, Kokcha Valley, in Badakshan Province, Afghanistan, where it forms large and beautiful crystals that are almost always embedded on a white marble matrix. Small crusts of Afghanite also occur in the vicinity of Slyudyanka, near the southern area of Lake Baikal, and white and colorless microcrystals in the vicinity of Vico Lake, near Viterbo, Italy.