We've made contact with a miner in the Afghan areas and have a supply of mine fresh material. The fluorescent activators have not been studied very much from this area. It's very unclear what is going on with most of the material from this locality, but as we get more material and discover new fluorescent minerals we will have them analyzed for proper IDs. But they sure do make for some confusing but amazingly beautiful fluorescent specimens. This piece (as most from Afghanistan) is best displayed using multiple wavelengths, and shows best under a combination of longwave, midwave and shortwave (fullwave - first picture), although it is very respectable under shortwave alone (second pic) - or even midwave UV or longwave UV alone.
Under shortwave the calcite fluoresces a dark red-orange, and the diopside crystals fluoresce a bluish white. Under midwave UV (only) there are areas of a strong blue fluorescence from an unknown mineral - this is one of the few examples of midwave only fluorescence we have observed (several closeups of this area are shown at the bottom). Phlogopite is bright yellow under shortwave, shifting to a bright butterscotch color midwave and even deeper longwave (very few phlogopites have this multi-wave response). Midwave causes the calcite to pop very nicely. Longwave brings out the yellow color of the blue afghanite crystals. Midwave and longwave UV bring out the bright yellow of the marialite very nicely. If we were to display it under only one light, we would probably pick shortwave, preferably with a midwave “kicker”.
The Garpenberg mine is located in Bergslagen, a very old mining area in the southern part of Sweden.
The mine is very active today and is one of Europe's most progressive underground mining operations. Collecting is not possible, and the few specimens that reach collector's hands are highly prized. The mineralogy is quite similar to that of Franklin NJ.
