Kurnakovite (ex Al Ordway and Bob Reynolds Collections)

Item Description

Kurnakovite is a relatively rare hydrated magnesium borate mineral, and while the type locality for the species is in Kazakhstan, the finest crystals are those from the Boron area in California. There is a listing on mindat.org for a specimen from the Rock Currier collection that states, "Kurnakovite crystals were only found during the very early days of open pit mining at Boron. Several hundred specimens were collected at various times but you don't often see one for sale". This piece is a good example of this material featuring a sharp, well-formed, partially striated, triclinic prism with minor attached matrix underneath. The outer surface has a chalky white to grey-blue appearance, but when the crystal is backlit, it shows a beautiful GEMMY colorless to light smoky hue. There are some areas of interrupted growth here and there, but overall this is a still a very nice crystal of this classic and now very hard to find material. From the collection of Robert (Bob) Reynolds who passed in August of 2020. The piece is also accompanied by a label from the collection of Al Ordway. Bob was a well-known fossil and mineral expert and former Curator of Earth Sciences at the San Bernardino County Museum in California. The rare phyllomanganate-chromate species Reynoldsite was named in his honor in 2011.