Red Quartz (Ferruginous Quartz)

Item Description

These fairly new and very attractive Quartz specimens are some of the most colorful examples of the species from any locality in recent memory. You might see some of them labeled with several varietal names including Ferruginous Quartz, Red Quartz, "Hematoid" Quartz / Hematite Quartz, Eisenkiesel, and I'm sure there are more. The material is essentially Quartz that has been colored completely or nearly completely red by inclusions of iron oxide, most likely Hematite or Goethite. The locality at Tinejdad (I've seen it reported as the Tarya Mine) has recently produced some superb examples of these beautiful Quartz specimens with robust crystals, larger size display pieces and that intense stark red color. This specimen features thin prismatic crystals of Quartz with a deep strong red color, but if you backlight them, you can see a colorless zone on the exterior, so they're essentially "phantom" crystals with the dark red interior. Some of the prisms are "studded" with a secondary overgrowth of smaller "drusy" Quartz. The piece is in great shape overall, save the periphery where it was detached from the surrounding part of the pocket. The largest crystal measures 3.7 cm long. If you're a Quartz collector and you don't have one of these in your collection, don't miss out. They are beautiful display specimens with a pleasing color, and pieces like this one were few and far between from what we were able to select. If you collect Moroccan minerals, you have to have one of these in your collection.