Home > American Minerals II – April 7 > MS1567 Parisite-(Ce)

Parisite-(Ce) - Sold


Parisite-(Ce) is a calcium cerium carbonate fluoride with hexagonal symmetry. Bunsen (1845) first described the species, naming it after José Ignacio "Pepe" Paris y Ricaurte (1780-1849), who held the lease of Muzo emerald mine from 1824 to 1848. The Muzo mine is type locality for parisite-(Ce). At the Snowbird mine, parisite-(Ce) forms in late stage ankerite veins (Metz, 1985).

This is a cluster of brown parisite-(Ce) crystals. There are terminated crystals reaching 8 mm long, with some longer crystal sections also present. Also attached is greenish aggregate, 16 mm across, of secondary nickel minerals. The nickel minerals indicate the presence (or former presence) of gersdorffite. This specimen was collected by Bart Cannon (1950-2019), a mineralogist from Seattle. A vintage Bart Cannon label accompanies the specimen.