Spessartine

Item Description

This large crystal of deep red, intensely colored spessartine garnet is from the early 2000s finds on a Maasai tribal area, that shocked the mineral market when they started to find good crystals. Initially, they simply dug with hands and recovered near-surface crystals, many of which had etching, corrosion, and less color. However, a deeper layer, also seemingly dug with hand tools, yielded richly colored and fine specimens. The deposit was a thin layer, and the quality specimens came and went, now off the market for nearly 20 years. This is a robust, showy specimen from those important finds, among the largest bright orange spessartine crystals yet known. 130 grams.