Magnetite

Item Description

Typically the Magnetite specimens from this locality are closely grown together, but this piece has good isolation between the crystals. The piece has decent, good size, sharp, lustrous, metallic, black, "Alpine-type" octahedra associated with cream colored feldspar on matrix. Interestingly enough, the piece shows fluorescence under UV light, which might be due to the presence of micro Carbonate Hydroxylapatite crystals, or it might just be the Feldspar fluorescing, as I've seen this before in other feldspars. The largest Magnetite crystal measures 1.2 cm across, which is above average size for the locality. This is one of the better quality specimens of this material that I've offered from this locality in a while, and despite some damage, it is a fairly attractive overall piece. Keep in mind, that there are no other localities producing Magnetites of this quality today, and there are few localities in the world that have ever produced Magnetite like this. Though this species is well known to collectors, it is remarkably difficult to obtain such well crystallized, displayable miniature sized specimens such as this one.