Mineral guides
What each Moroccan mineral is, where it comes from, what it costs and how to judge a specimen, checked against real listings and cited sources.
- Pb₅(VO₄)₃Cl
Vanadinite
Vanadinite is a lead vanadate that grows as bright red hexagonal crystals. Most of the vanadinite in collections today comes from one district in Morocco, Mibladen near Midelt, where we buy ours from the miners.
- Co₃(AsO₄)₂·8H₂O
Erythrite
Erythrite is a cobalt arsenate in magenta to crimson, known to miners as cobalt bloom. Well-formed crystals are rare, and Bou Azzer in Morocco's Anti-Atlas produces the finest sprays on the market.
- PbMoO₄
Wulfenite
Wulfenite grows as thin square plates of orange, yellow or red, often so thin that light passes through them. In Morocco it comes from the same lead districts as vanadinite, Touissit and Mibladen.
- Cu₃(CO₃)₂(OH)₂
Azurite
Azurite is a copper carbonate with one of the deepest blues in the mineral world. Morocco's Touissit district is one of today's main sources of sharp, lustrous azurite crystals.
- PbCO₃
Cerussite
Cerussite is a lead carbonate with a diamond-like lustre, famous for crystals that twin into six-rayed stars and lattices. In Morocco it grows with vanadinite and barite at Mibladen and with azurite at Touissit.
- BaSO₄
Barite
Barite is barium sulfate, a white to honey-coloured mineral so dense that a small piece feels like metal. At Mibladen it forms the pale blades that carry the district's red vanadinite.
- CaF₂
Fluorite
Fluorite is calcium fluoride, a mineral of cubes and octahedra in almost every colour. It defines 4 on the Mohs scale, gave its name to fluorescence, and in Morocco comes from the El Hammam mine near Meknès.
- Cu₂CO₃(OH)₂
Malachite
Malachite is a green copper carbonate, famous for its banded and botryoidal forms. In Morocco it grows in the same copper deposits as azurite, and the two are often found on one piece.
- PbS
Galena
Galena is lead sulfide, the world's main lead ore, with bright metallic cubes and a startling weight. It is the ore the Mibladen mines were dug for, and the mother of vanadinite, cerussite and wulfenite.
- A rock cavity lined with crystals
Geode
A geode is a hollow, roughly round rock lined with crystals, most often quartz. Geodes are one of Morocco's most sold natural objects, and also one of its most faked.
- Class Trilobita, extinct arthropods
Trilobite
Trilobites are extinct sea arthropods that lived for almost 270 million years. Morocco supplies most of the trilobites sold to collectors today, from cheap common species to spiny pieces worth thousands.
- Subclass Ammonoidea, extinct cephalopods
Ammonite
Ammonites are extinct coiled cephalopods, closer relatives of octopus and squid than of the nautilus they resemble. Moroccan ammonoids are sold everywhere, often cut and polished to show the chambers inside.
- Gypsum (sometimes baryte) with sand grains
Desert rose
A desert rose is a cluster of flat gypsum or baryte crystals that grows inside sand into the shape of a flower. They are the most common natural souvenir of the Moroccan Sahara.
- CaCO₃
Calcite
Calcite is calcium carbonate, the mineral of limestone and marble and the reference for hardness 3. Morocco produces some of its most colourful forms, including the hot-pink cobaltoan calcite of Bou Azzer.
- CaCO₃
Aragonite
Aragonite is calcium carbonate like calcite, built in a different crystal structure. Morocco is known for its radiating clusters of brown to orange aragonite, sold as star or sputnik aragonite.
- SiO₂ (quartz)
Amethyst
Amethyst is purple quartz. Its colour comes from iron in the crystal and natural radiation over millions of years. Morocco produces amethyst crystals and clusters from the Anti-Atlas, alongside the big geodes of Brazil and Uruguay.
- PbSO₄
Anglesite
Anglesite is lead sulfate, a brilliant, heavy mineral that forms when galena weathers. Touissit in northeastern Morocco produces some of the finest anglesite crystals on the market, gemmy and golden to colourless.
- CoAs₃ (with Ni, Fe)
Skutterudite
Skutterudite is a silvery cobalt arsenide with a mirror-like metallic lustre. Bou Azzer in Morocco's Anti-Atlas produces the sharp cubic and octahedral crystals that collectors know best, and its weathering gives the district's pink erythrite.
- Orthocone (straight-shelled) nautiloid cephalopods
Orthoceras
The black polished fossils with long straight cones sold across Morocco are called orthoceras. They are real fossils of straight-shelled nautiloids, but almost none of them belong to the genus Orthoceras.