Euclase

$6,000.00

$40.00 shipping
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Euclase is one of the rarest and most desirable of all gem minerals. Its intense blue colour is what draws people in. Very few world localities have produced high quality gemmy crystals and those that have tend to be dominated by pale blues. The Last Hope mine in Mashonaland West, Zimbabwe is known to have produced the most intense blue Euclase known, but rarely in good crystals. This miniature specimen, which is actually rather large for the mine, consists of an aggregate of several very large chunky crystals individually reaching over 3 cm across. These crystals are not perfectly formed, but are terminated albeit with slightly rounded natural etched surfaces. Colourwise, they are mottled, displaying patches with a fantastic deep blue colour, but grading into paler blue areas. With strong backlighting a vivid electric blue colour stands out around the edges. Some of the smaller crystals show some well-formed glassy crystal faces and intense colour too. The overall size and colour of this specimen is consistent with older material and a handwritten label accompanying the specimen has the number 1978 on it, probably meaning the year it was acquired. The main period of working at Last Hope mine was during the 1960s and into the 1970s.