Uvarovite with Shuiskite-(Mg) (rare)

Item Description

The great chrome mine at Sarany in the Urals of Russia has produced some of the most colorful and impressive "Alpine-type" Russian mineral specimens, including some of the finest Uvarovites in the world. This mine is the type locality for this rare chromium Garnet species, first discovered in the 1800s and named after the illustrious Count Sergey Uvarov who was the President of the Academy of St Petersburg from 1818 to 1855 according to the entry on mindat.org. This specimen features hundreds of tiny Uvarovite crystals measuring up to no more than about 1 mm with high luster and intense emerald-green color associated with silvery "tufts" / fibers of Shuiskite-(Mg) on chromite matrix. Shuiskite-(Mg) is an incredibly rare calcium magnesium chromium silicate, which used to be simply "Shuiskite", but has since been found to be the end member of a series with Shuiskite-(Cr). It is also the chromium analogue of Pumpellyite-(Mg). We have photographed the crystals with a Canon MP-E 65 mm macro lens to better illustrate their quality. A very worthwhile full sized cabinet sized specimen of this classic material that was mined in the 1990s.
From the collection of Richard ("Rich") Kosnar (1946-2007), the well-known mineral dealer and collector from Colorado. He was the namesake for the rare zirconium phosphate mineral, Kosnarite.