Quartz (''Mango'' Quartz) with Halloysite inclusions

Item Description

Quartz is obviously a common mineral, but its appeal lies in the fact that it occurs in a wide range of habits/styles and colors. Here we have a showy and aesthetic group of this unique and beautiful material from Colombia, which are commonly referred to as "Mango Quartz", which started appearing on the market in 2017. Quartz commonly will act as a host for other mineral inclusions, creating unique specimens, and these eye-catching specimens will go down as some of the most beautiful and easily recognizable examples of this diverse species ever found. Due to their wonderfully singular color, along with excellent crystallization, they were very well-received, and instantly regarded as some of the most distinctive Quartz crystals ever found. This distinguishing soft yellow-orange color is what obviously inspired the "Mango Quartz" nickname. Typically, Colombia isn't a big Quartz crystal producing country, and these crystals were actually mined along a roadcut in the middle of the famous Emerald mining region in Boyacá. The upper portions of most of these crystals feature bright yellow-orange inclusions of a mineral that was first reported to be Humboltine, but others have since stated it is Halloysite. The Quartz crystals are high quality in their own right, as they are textbook, hexagonal prisms with good luster, sharpness and fine internal gemminess, which is only accentuated by the beautiful inclusions. This piece is a three-dimensional crystal group full of sharp, lustrous, prismatic crystals with colorless, gem clarity on the lower portions, and of course those eye-catching yellow inclusions on the terminations, with minor matrix. I don't know if there will be more of these in the future, so if you're a fan of interesting Quartz specimens or unique inclusion specimens, don't pass this one up, as there are not nearly as many as there were a few years ago. For more information, please see Rocks & Minerals May/June 2019 issue, Vol. 94, No. 3.