Tourmaline (doubly-terminated crystals) on Quartz

Item Description

There are many pegmatite localities in Pakistan, but when it comes to production of Tourmaline specimens, Pakistan is typically outshined by the specimens from nearby Afghanistan. With that said, there are a few localities that produce very attractive Tourmalines, including some beautiful pieces from recent finds at Chhappu. While Chhappu, is not typically known for its Tourmalines, this came from a small pocket a couple years ago. It hosts a few attractive gemmy, prismatic crystals of Tourmaline sitting on translucent colorless of Quartz, but what makes it more desirable than most is that the two main crystals are doubly-terminated showing intense almost chrome green colored terminations on both ends, with a notably lighter yellow-green hue in the middle. There is also a secondary Tourmaline off to the side which shows a mixture of soft yellow-green and rare colorless ("Achroite") hues. The colorless area also has a bit of "cat's eye" effect to it when rotated in the light. The largest Tourmaline crystal on the piece measures 2.8 cm. Overall it's a showy and desirable specimen from a fairly hard to find locality in Pakistan.