Phenakite

Unknown Owner

Old classic Russian specimen consisting of a large blocky colorless slightly translucent crystal of phenakite. Some matrix is attached, the crystal though is complete and in good condition. This is a nice large crystal for this occurrence and species. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video. The label gives an original acquisition date of 1908.The Izumrudnye Kopi district, centered near the village of Malyshevo in the Middle Urals of Russia, is the world's premier locality for phenakite. Geologically, the district is defined by the Uralian Emerald Belt, where Hercynian-age granitic pegmatites intruded into ultramafic rocks, creating phlogopite-rich glimmerites. Phenakite formed here as a beryllium silicate, occurring as magnificent colorless, wine-yellow, or brown crystals often exceeding several centimeters in size. Historically, the region gained fame in 1830 with the discovery of emeralds by Maxim Kozhevnikov, leading to the formal opening of the Mariinsky mine in 1831. Phenakite was first identified and described from this specific locality by Nils Gustaf Nordenskiold in 1833. Industrial mining and quarrying operations were most intense during the 19th century and the Soviet era, primarily focusing on emeralds, alexandrite, and beryllium ore, with active production spanning from the 1830s through the late 1990s.