Calcite (CAR-48)

specimen number:
9273084

location:
Bou Azzer, Draa-Tafilalet, Morocco

description:

Attractive lustrous pink mostly gemmy crystals of calcite to 0.5 cm are in size across the front of matrix. In great condition.

The Bou Azzer district, located within the central Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco, is an internationally significant mining region exploited primarily via extensive underground shafts and tunnels for its rich cobalt, nickel, silver, and gold ores. Geologically, the district is situated along a major Neoproterozoic suture zone where a disrupted ophiolite complex, consisting of ancient altered mantle rocks called serpentinites, was thrust against quartzites and volcanic sequences during the Pan-African Orogeny. This unique setting allowed deep-seated, arsenic-rich hydrothermal fluids to react with the serpentinites, precipitating rich veins of primary cobalt-nickel arsenides, most notably skutterudite and safflorite, along the fractured margins of the rock units. Historically, commercial interest in the district began in 1928 after French prospectors discovered erythrite outcroppings, leading to the establishment of regular industrial mining operations around 1930 under the Societe Miniere de Bou Azzer et du Graara (SMAG). Production has been highly continuous over nearly a century, scaling up significantly under the Moroccan conglomerate Managem, which expanded infrastructure into deep underground extensions to remain one of the world's only primary producers of cobalt from arsenide ores with active extraction, milling, and specimen recovery continuing through 2026.

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