Detailed Description

This is a beautiful miniature, with barite blades coated by sparkly micro crystals of vanadinite.  I think of it as an enhanced (naturally!) barite specimen rather than a vanadinite. 

About the Vanadinite/Barite Workings at Coud'a

The Coud'a workings involve a lot of hard hand-tunneling through solid rock – it’s incredible the hard work involved. Once an undergound working is depleted or too dangerous, the miners start again from surface, and tunnel straight down through hard rock for 8 weeks to arrive in the producing zone again. Only once in a while do they come out with something of this fine quality. If you'd like to see more about the Mibladen Mining District, including photos of some of the vanadinite workings, see Morocco: The Northern Sahara and the Atlas Mountains (Part 2). (Note, the big hole depicted in the first photograph in the other half ot the article - see Part 1 -  is a barite/vanadinite specimen-mining operation at Coud'a.)