Hematite

Item Description

These iridescent and gorgeous specimens of specular, grain-like hematite look unreal, and fake. But they are real - and came out in force decades ago, so that they now sell by the gram as jeweler items, or by the piece as collector items. At the time, Rock Currier brought out most of the large find....and kept some superlative examples for the future, suspecting they would be both popular and transient in nature. This is one from his secret stash, where he kept many of the biggest and most colorful pieces. Such items sell for $1500-2500 when you can find them, if one turns up. Rock's own words from his private catalog contain the above and a little more detail as well (such a nice description, we copy it from his own words on an old MINDAT article): "A container load (about 15 tons) of the iridescent material was collected and imported into the United States and distributed to many different mineral dealers. The material was mostly confined to one dealer and the locality that was given out for the fine was Belo Horizonte. No more accurate information was given out at the time to protect the commercial interests of a number of individuals and to keep the mine from being inundated by people wanting to get some of the material. Many years have passed and the dealer (Rock Currier) feels that it is time that the detailed locality should be set forth for posterity sake. This was a one-time occurrence, not because the material was exhausted in the mine, but because the mining of this small amount of material disrupted the mining plan of the mine and management decided that a small sale like this one was not worth their time and effort. As an interesting aside, the mining company on occasion would scoop up a truckload or two of this colorful material and scatter it on the streets of a local small town on the occasion of a particular festival. Much to the importers' amazement, the material was also used in fashion jewelry. The importer never thought of it in terms of being anything other than 'color rock'." -Rock Currier, 2010 on Mindat.org