This kyanite is a contact twin on the rare 121 twinning law (the last one is bar-one but I don’t seem to be able to put a bar over it). It is deep orange, with some gemminess in the interior. It is in excellent condition, however as is the case for pretty much all of the specimens from this find, it has some rough spots at the edges – late in their formation, these crystals were naturally etched.

The kyanites from this find, about 35 km northeast of Loliondo, are very unusual – they are orange due to trace amounts of manganese, and only some are twinned.

As with all photos on the site, this is colour balanced to daylight – under halogen this specimen is warmer with more internal red hue.

A very good specimen of an unusual twin.