Bastnasite (very rare)

Item Description

Within the last few years, the locality at Zagi Mountain in Pakistan has provided collectors with some of the finest quality and amazingly gemmy Bastnasite-(Ce) specimens. Typically the species forms in relatively thin blades and was never suitable enough for cutting stones. The recent find in Pakistan produced some very thick crystals for the species, many of which are of gem quality. The stones cut from some of these crystals are extremely rare and highly prized by collectors. They often have some sort of inclusions, and completely eye clean gems are very hard to find. This particular stone is a beautiful, rich orange color gem with a "Step Oval" cut. The stone is nearly eye clean, which is rare for this material, even in smaller stones. This stone would fill a spot in any rare gem collection, and considering that very little of this material has come to the market recently, it's a great time to snag one of these gems before the price goes higher. I'm told that there haven't been any good finds of this material at Zagi Mountain in several years.