Spessartine Garnet

Item Description

A huge and superb gem example of a garnet from a MAJOR recent find! The full locality information for this deposit is near the town of Loliondo, close to Serengeti National Park and 7 km from the Kenyan border, W-NW of the north end of Lake Natron. It is closed to heavy traffic and on Maasai tribal lands. Some of these are even larger than this one, but they typically get less transparent as the size gets larger (where this one has a lot of transparency to it). These had quietly been emerging from a small prospect in remote Tanzania and hoarded for sale at the Tucson show. Rob was tipped off by a gem dealer who was buying the clearest (smaller) ones up for cutting and faceting. The crystals light up a pretty orangey-red color, similar to a Chinese scheelite, under good light. Prices on these were high at Tucson; even the biggest ones (more dark and less gemmy than this one) were priced with several dealers from $10-20 per gram. This one, again, has a lot of good transparency to it, yet weighs a stunning 149 grams! It is also in EXCELLENT condition!