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Lot 8199

Quartz Crystal with Greenish-Blue Tourmaline

4 December 2005, 11:00 PST
Los Angeles

Sold for US$49,937.50 inc. premium

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Quartz Crystal with Greenish-Blue Tourmaline

Golconda Mine, Golconda District
Governador Valadares, by the Rio Doce, Minas Gerais
Southeast Region, Brazil

Brazil is famous for its minerals, many of which are mined from one of the world’s largest pegmatite zones, which run across the state of Minas Gerais. Perhaps the most famous mineral specimens from Brazil are tourmaline. The Golconda district once boasted three mines which produced bi-colored pink/green tourmalines and fine blue-green material. The most famous of these was the Golconda mine where the majority of the discoveries were made between 1961-1967. The mine has been closed now for decades.

The present specimen is one of these older ones, having been discovered by its owner in 1962. It illustrates the beauty of a certain mineral occurrence—when crystals of different mineral species are intergrown. This immense quartz crystal, having an overall hexagonal crystallography, appears almost smoky in areas. There are approximately twenty individual crystals of indicolite and chrome tourmaline intergrown into its mass and many are seen to be protruding from it. Many of them are flawless gem-quality and their color is considered to be the best ever found in Minas Gerais, with the longest individual tourmaline prism measuring up to 7 inches in length. Several of these fine crystals have natural terminations. They could have been broken off or removed for faceting but they were left intact for the viewer to marvel at its beauty. Weighing 38 ½ pounds and measuring 14 x 11 x 7 in. Height overall 17 ½ inches with stand.

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