Here is an extremely colorful small cabinet specimen hosting solid, layered sugilite from the Wessels Mine in South Africa. The neon-violet sugilite occurs as a partial vein within a brownish orange matrix for great color contrast. It consists of tight, parallel aggregates of prismatic crystals that gives the brightly colored mineral almost a silky sheen. This is a very fine example of this material and for those of you who are unaware, sugilite is pronounced with a hard "g" and the species was named after Ken-ichi Sugi. Sugilite is a rare and super colorful potassium-sodium-iron-lithium silicates and this is the best locality in the world for the species.
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