Tourmaline (rare fibrous habit)

Item Description

A very attractive toenail sized specimen from the famous Cruzeiro Mine in Brazil featuring a prismatic Tourmaline crystal with an unusually fibrous termination that resembles a paintbrush. The outer portion of the piece features smooth, lustrous, striated prism faces, but you can see that the interior has been altered throughout. This fibrous style is not unheard of for Tourmaline, but still notably rare. While the piece might appear to be completely black, the lower portion of the specimen does pass light and show a dark green color. A really interesting and unusual Tourmaline specimen that would make a great addition to any collection of gem crystals, Tourmalines, minerals of Brazil or simply "oddities". This piece comes from the personal collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman, the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. Dave is now retired from mining, but he worked for decades in various mines underground in Colorado, as a miner, mechanic, engineer, shift boss and foreman. His biggest claim to fame is that he was the foreman and the primary person in charge of mining and specimen recovery at the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado in the 1970s alongside his son-in-law, Rich Kosnar. This project what was the FIRST ever operation for specimen recovery at this historic locality. A full-page photograph of Dave can be seen mining underground at the Sweet Home in on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".