Uvite on Doubly-terminated Quartz (ex Rolando Gioia Collection)

Item Description

Excellent quality, sharp, lustrous, gemmy, pleochroic, tabular, trigonal crystals of Uvite Tourmaline on a doubly-termianted Quartz group from the famous mines around Brumado in Brazil. The Uvites show a golden color while looking down the "c" axis, but with strong backlighting they show a rich green hue when looking along the "a" axis. Now the Quartz group may look to be contacted on the base, but it's actually crystallized, and and as far as I can tell, it looks to be a complete "floater" as it's crystallized all the way around. The largest Uvite measures 6 mm acrpss, and the piece is in excellent condition. This classic combination is one of the staples from Brumado, which is essentially a large mountain filled mostly with Magnesite. This locality is the third largest open air Magnesite mine in the world. From the collection of Rolando Gioia (a contributor to new definitive book on Brazilian minerals: "Minerais e Pedras Preciosas do Brasil").