Rhodochrosite (unusual crystal habit)

Item Description

This large plate of rhodochrosite is from the very old manganese mines here, and is quite different on close inspection from the very few others I have seen (it is rare from here, and from Brazil in general). If I saw this casually, I would assume it to be German, from one of the old mines there that produce small scalenohedral "rice-grain"-like crystals showing rounded edges. This has that general effect, but more than the rounding the crystals seem to also have a different habit in that they flare out at the ends like flowers, broadenign instead of tapering. On very close inspection, once you see this, it is extremely strange! They look like rhodo crystals from nowhere else I have seen. And, this is a large and showy plate. Valued $900-1000 but really we have no comparables, never having a similar specimen. Reportedly found in 2009 here during working for the new pockets of rhodonite crystals