Imperial Topaz (rare locality)

Item Description

These exciting and beautiful Imperial Topaz specimens date back to around 2009. The discovery of these attractive and fine quality crystals from a completely and an unexpected locality in Zambia. At the Tucson Show we acquired a small parcel from a good friend who owns a claim in Zambia and is actively mining this material, and literally just took these out of the ground a few months ago. They are notably similar to the famous and historic Imperial Topaz crystals from Ouro Preto, Brazil in both color and habit, but I can say that some of these Zambian crystals are actually gemmier than many I've seen from Brazil. The reason you don't see any many gem quality Brazilian crystals is because a large percentage of them are faceted into gemstones, but our friend in Zambian didn't want to butcher good crystals, so we were fortunate to get some pieces like this with excellent gemminess. This piece is a fine, sharp, lustrous, soft orange color crystal with good overall gemminess. The piece has a classic "chisel"-shaped termination just like the Brazilian crystals. There is a separation mark on the back of the crystal where another Imperial Topaz once grew, so it's not damage free, but it's still a lovely example of these attractive and exciting pieces from this limited discovery..