BRUCITE

ABOUT THE SPECIMEN

Great, aesthetic growth of lemon yellow brucite, still attached to matrix. This one has a really nice shimmering, waxy luster to it. Killa Saifullah is undoubtedly the most important locality for brucite in the modern era of mining, and can certainly be considered the most famous locality for the species in history. This particular cabinet-size specimen comes from the collection of the famed Gene Meieran, who built perhaps the largest ever suite of minerals from this region.

VIDEO

MORE INFO

Killa Saifullah sits within the Muslim Bagh ophiolitic complex of the Zhob Valley, marking the suture zone between the Indian and Eurasian plates where obducted oceanic peridotite was serpentinized by circulating hydrothermal fluids. Brucite formed as a late-stage byproduct of that serpentinization, precipitating from magnesium-rich fluids as olivine broke down, typically in association with chrysotile and antigorite along tight fractures in the dunite. The vivid lemon-yellow color—anomalous for a species that occurs almost universally as gray to pale straw-colored masses elsewhere—has not been fully characterized but is tentatively linked to iron impurities or structural defects introduced during crystallization. Habit is predominantly botryoidal, with glassy translucent spheroids building into rounded clusters that superficially resemble hyalite opal; discrete lamellar crystals are considerably rarer and matrix-preserved examples rarer still, as specimens typically came away cleanly from vein walls without attached host rock. When first marketed—initially misattributed to Kharan District before the actual source was clarified—dealers described the find as effectively redefining the species aesthetically. Supply from the original discovery has not been meaningfully replenished, and fine botryoidal pieces on matrix are now difficult to source.