Bou Azzer has produced the world's finest specimens of erythrite, roselite, roselite-beta, talmessite, wendwilsonite, skutterudite and gersdorffite. About 215 mineral species have been identified from the district, of which six were new to science: irhtemite, arhbarite, nickelaustinite, wendwilsonite, bouazzerite and maghrebite. Bou Azzer is also considered to be the world's best (or at least second best) locality for the very rare species cobaltarthurite, cobaltaustinite, cobaltlotharmeyerite, karibibite and guanacoite.

INTRODUCTION

Bou Azzer might be translated as "where the fig tree stands." In a little gorge to the left of the road out of Tazenahkt a tiny garden lies hidden, not far from a spring inhabited by many frogs--a rare thing in the barren Anti-Atlas Mountains. An old, stunted fig tree seems to watch over the garden, and it is this diminutive tree which has given a name to the whole, very well-mineralized region thereabouts.

The Bou Azzer mining district encompasses many distinct mines, of which the most famous--from west to east--are Bou Azzer proper, Aghbar (Arhbar), (12) Ightem (Irhtem), Tamdrost and Ait Ahmane. These classic localities have produced the world's finest specimens of erythrite, roselite, roselite-beta, talmessite, wendwilsonite, skutterudite and gersdorffite. As of the end of 2006 the Bou Azzer district had produced about 215 mineral species altogether, and was the type locality for four of them: irhtemite (Pierrot and Schubnel, 1972), arhbarite (Schmetzer et al., 1982), nickelaustinite (Cesbron et al., 1987), and wendwilsonite (Dunn et al., 1987). Two more new species have just been described from the district: bouazzerite and maghrebite (Meisser and Brugger, 2006). Bou Azzer is also considered to be the world's best (or second best) locality for the rare minerals cobaltarthurite, cobaltaustinite, cobaltlotharmeyerite, karibibite and guanacoite.

Since the early 1930's there have been numerous publications about the Bou Azzer mining district--chiefly geological and economic studies concerning extraction of cobalt and nickel arsenide ores. By contrast, descriptions of the district's other minerals, especially the secondary mineralogy, are dispersed among various specialized treatises. Most published works on the descriptive mineralogy of Bou Azzer are products of the Service Geologique du Maroc: windows to a "golden age" in the time of French geolo-gists like Christophe Gaudefroy (1888-1971), Georges Jouravsky (1896-1964) and Francois Permingeat (1917-1988). These original works are highly interesting, and remain pertinent even now. The same remarks apply to the excellent works on arhbarite, schneider-hohnite and karibibite by German scientists.

Although the region's deposits are world-famous and although two of us (GF and JED) have visited them many times, we have had to recognize that the extant listings of Bou Azzer's known secondary minerals and their varieties are radically incomplete. The fact has moved us to conduct many new investigations, particularly for the microcrystalline minerals. The result has been the identification of 46 Bou Azzer mineral species not previously known from there. These include arseniosiderite, bromargyrite, cabalzarite, chalcophyllite, clinoclase, clinotyrolite, cobaltkoritnigite, cornubite, fornacite, geminite, litharge, mottramite, nickellotharmeyerite, novacekite, parnauite, powellite, uvarovite, walentaite, wulfenite, yukonite and zalesiite.

HISTORY

For a long time the tribal Berbers of the region around Bou...