Uvite Tourmaline with rare EMERALD association

Item Description

The Pomba Pit is one of the largest Magnesite deposits in the world. The mineral is mined to produce such things as furnace linings, flooring material, and is a catalyst and filler in the production of synthetic rubber. One of the best known species that is not commerically mined from the Pomba Pit is Uvite Tourmaline with its distinctive tabular trigonal habit and colors ranging from rich greens to deep reds. Rarely, but notably, this locality will also produce Emerald crystals, though they are very rarely seen in association with any other minerals. This piece is a wonderful and rarely seen association specimen featuring dozens of sharp, lustrous, well-formed, rich green crystals of Uvite Tourmaline measuring up to 1.3 cm across in a wonderful crystallized "mound" which are associated with several sharp, lustrous, thin, prismatic crystals of lovely sea-green colored Emerald. Now, some of the Emerald crystals are completely without color (white), so I suppose these could be considered bi-colored Beryl crystals, as they do transition from white to green in areas. Some of the Beryl / Emerald crystals have formed in rarely seen semi-radial "sprays", which is not only rare for this locality, but for Beryl in general. The largest Emerald crystal measures 8 mm long, but you have to look on the underside of the piece to find it. A really cool combo from this world-famous locality. Minimal roughness, but overall the piece is in great shape. This would be an impressive Uvite specimen on its own without the Beryl crystals just based upon the size, and the fact that it's a solid specimen of Tourmaline (no matrix). Valued at $2,400 in the inventory. A rare and beautiful piece that would make a great addition to any Brazilian mineral collection or a gem crystal suite.