Davidite-Ce- Tuftane, Frikstad Iveland
Pavel is correct as always, this is the type locality for Davidite-Ce. It is one of the rare occurances where finding a new, previously unknown mineral is a bad thing. The appearance of Davidite-Ce is quite similar to gadolinite, and the holotype material was sold as part of a gadolinite shipment from Tuftane. The shipment was of course returned for re-sorting when it was found out that a lot of the material was not gadolinite.The miners lost a substancial amount of money, but science ( in this case professor Neumann) discovered and described a new mineral.
After running through a few bags of material, the miners found it quite easy(!) to distinguish the two minerals based on lustre and specific gravity.
It is believed that no more than 200kgs of Davidite-Ce has been found at Tuftan. Neumann describes it's appearance as "elongated masses with semi-linear outline, and lengths exceeding 20 cm" , or, to use the words of the miners, the Davidite-Ce masses looked like flounders.
According to Neumann, crystals are extremely rare, he specifically mentions that only 5 small, inclomplete crystals has been found. This is an under-estimation as crystals and crystal fragments has found it's way into collections.
There are very few specimens on the market today, and the value is difficult to estimate, but anyone with a davidite crystal from Tuftane should be aware that they have a quite unique specimen in their collection, and the large specimen with several crystals displayed at Setesdalen Mineral Park is truly a one of a kind specimen.
Davidite
