This is a beautiful “iron rose” grouping of sharp hematite crystals. The hematite crystals are highly lustrous, with surfaces like black mirrors, while the beveled edges have a reddish metallic look, accenting the individual hematite crystals. The associated quartz is unusual for this locality, where it is more common to see individual roses without matrix […]

This specimen hosts a number of sharp, lustrous hydroxylherderite crystals on albite and quartz. It’s pretty uncommon that a mineral specimen looks equally great from three different angles, but this specimen does. The largest crystals show a very obvious zoning, with a slightly lilac-hued darker core (with uneven, irregular border), a lighter zone and then […]

This transparent, tabular quartz crystal hosts bright golden rutile crystals to approximately 3 cm in length. Most of the rutile crystals are completely included within the quartz crystal, and a few are actually exposed on the surface of the back of the crystal. Some of the rutile crystals show sharp well-defined terminations, while others are […]

This is a remarkable crystal of aqua-coloured montebrasite. It is from a find in the late 1970s at the Lavra da Ilha. I had certainly never seen montebrasite this colour from any locality until these old pieces came to light recently. Carlos Menezes acquired the small group of specimens (I understand the find was small […]

This is a super little specimen for a few reasons. The fluorite crystals are bright, highly lustrous and glassy – water clear in places. And they are accented by a cute calcite crystal on top (or at one end, depending on how you prefer to display it). The cluster is a floater, or if it […]

A super specimen of water-clear fluorite crystals on matrix, this one features cubes up to 2.0 cm. They’re like bevelled ice cubes. The crystal morphology from this find is distinctive, dominated by bright glassy cube faces and frosty bevels derived from the dodecahedral form. If you look closely, there are in fact tiny octahedral-form triangular […]

Detailed Description This is a beautiful sceptered quartz crystal. The slender core crystal is overgrown by  second generation crystals, forming the sceptre. The second generation crystals are sharp, bright and glassy. In excellent  condition, with no damage other than at the back of the piece. This is a highly aesthetic and distinctive sceptre. About these […]

Detailed Description A tall and slender crystal of quartz forms the core of this one. And then it is the second generation crystals, grown over top of the tall crystal that make the piece. The second generation beta quartz crystals are sharp, and lustrous – the cluster contains a myriad of bright crystal faces. In […]

This one is an absolute jewel. A group of sharp, lustrous parallel growth calcite crystals is perched on crystals of quartz, accompanied by tiny sparkly black ilvaite crystals. The quality of these calcite crystals is astounding – they are perfect to the eye (you need magnification to search out minute rubbing). The calcite crystals are […]

From the Verchniy Mine, on Rudnaya Mountain in the Dal’negorsk district. this is a gorgeous pair of parallel growth calcite crystals. Although calcite is common, the top quality calcite crystals from Dal’negorsk are famous for their lustre, sharpness and internal play of light. This specimen has all of those qualities – it is in excellent […]