Updated 4d ago

Sturmanite

$500.00

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This extremely rare combination of small, orange-coloured, short hexgonal prisms of pyramidally-terminated Sturmanite sat upon a matrix of larger stepped pale sulphur-yellow Brucite is claimed to be from the famous Wessels mine in the Kalahari Manganese Field, South Africa, but as with many mineral specimens from this manganese-mining district, accurate provenancing to specific mines is sometimes unreliable. The reason we query this is that a very similar specimen from the collection of Bruce Cairncross is illustrated in his 2013 book, 'The Khalahari Manganese Field the adventure continues...' as from N'Chwaning II mine. Upon this great miniature-sized specimen, the Sturmanite crystals reach 2 mm in size, but are really well-formed and look great under magnification. The Brucite crystals which form the matrix are much larger, with the clustered, barrel-shaped crystals individually reaching 2 cm across. It is from the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021) and is quite an unusual find.