Blue Spinel

Item Description

This is a really interesting specimen for any locality, that highlights a 1.5-cm blue-lavender-colored spinel crystal perched in a free pocket of white crystals, in massive marble matrix. The crystal is sharp and complete! it has a natural waxy luster to it, and seems to have formed freely in the space of a small pocket, as there are small wite crystals around it (nepheline? feldspar?), indicating it was not etched out of a massive lump of rock in contrast to how so many spinels from here, Vietnam, Burma, all need to be prepared. The color is difficult to describe, and is both blue and purple at the same time. We obtained this in a collection, and the previous owner was sure of the location (and the matrix does not look like either Burmese or Vietnamese material in any case), but we do not know where exactly in Madagascar this might be from. Based on a search of MINDAT photos, we are attributing this to the spinel district in Betafo, but it is possibly from some more obscure locality. In any case, it is a beautiful and interesting spinel in matrix!