Fluor-buergerite (TYPE LOCALITY)

Item Description

This is a very rich and pretty specimen of one of the more rare species of the tourmaline group, even before the location and provenance comes into play. RARE, lustrous, chocolate-brown Fluor-buergerite crystals to 1.1 cm are aesthetically distributed across the Quartz rhyolite matrix. A ONE-TIME FIND in Mexico, this rare Tourmaline group species was found in the 60's by a miner who brought the lot to Tucson for sale. He died shortly thereafter, and to my knowledge nobody has yet rediscovered his exact locality. As it stands, Mexquitic de Carmona Municipality is the TYPE LOCALITY. Buergerite was named after Martin Buerger, an MIT mineralogy professor who invented the X-ray precession camera. From the impressive and expansive collection of Dr. Robert J. Lauf, this is a PUBLISHED and Type Locality specimen, both of which are of particular interest to collectors. Ex. Mike Corrigan with note card, book (signed by author), and any old labels included. Normally, simple average specimens are valued at least at $1000-ish, and this is better than any we have seen for sale in a long time. A similar specimen only has turned up recently to our knowledge, in the collection of Dr. Miguel Romero, around 2007 (and should be in MIM museum now).