Tourmaline

Item Description

From the Santa Rosa Mine at Itambacuri comes this robust, rich green, strongly striated Elbaite Tourmaline crystal with a good termination. This is from decades-old production early on at the mine and is a great example of this material which differs significantly from newer production that has deeper green crystals. This crystal stands two inches tall and and an inch and a quarter across and displays well on its flat, unterminated base. It has a rounded, roughly triangular shape with the prism faces strongly striated and having a relatively lustrous termination, The crystal exhibits etch pits in two areas at or near the termination probably from late-stage pegmatite fluids that removed some existing Albite as there is a small amount of that material left in one of the pits. A very cool, old-time piece from early production at the Santa Rosa.