Locality: Dassu (Dasso; Dusso), Braldu Valley, Skardu District, Baltistan, Gilgit-Baltistan (Northern Areas), Pakistan Dimensions: 8.3 cm x 8.2 cm x 4.2 cm 8.3 x 8.2 x 4.2 cm. A great rarity from this well known pegmatite occurrence in Pakistan featuring a very good sized mesh-like group of prismatic silvery viitaniemiite crystals sitting atop golden, semi-metallic, hexagonal bladed crystals of muscovite with minor green fluorite and white albite. This very rare sodium calcium manganese aluminum phosphate is only found in about a dozen localities in the world, and even though the largest known example of the species was found in Afghanistan (see following link: http://www.mindat.org/photo-132707.html ), this is the only specimen of confirmed viitaniemiite from Pakistan that we've seen. This is not just a single crystal, or a few crystals together, but a lot of crystals on matrix. Ex. Herb Obodda specimen. — Photo: Robert M. Lavinsky · CC BY-SA 3.0
Viitaniemiite
Viitaniemiite is an IMA-recognized mineral species in the phosphate class, with the chemical formula NaCaAl(PO₄)F₃.
It crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system (space group P2_1/m). It is a member of the Viitaniemiite structural group.
Key properties: Mohs hardness 5; specific gravity 3.245; Vitreous luster; optically biaxial.
IMA symbol Vtm, IMA status: approved, named in 1977.
An inclusion in eosphorite and rimming morinite, from a complex zoned granite pegmatite (Viitaniemi pegmatite, Finland); in druses in granite (Greifensteine, Germany).
It is found associated with Eosphorite, fluorapatite, crandallite, montebrasite, morinite (Viitaniemi pegmatite, Finland); lacroixite, morinite, apatite, childrenite, roscherite.
The name refers to its occurrence in the Viitaniemi pegmatite, Finland.