Forsterite

$1,400.00

$40.00 shipping
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Ships from USA

The remote Sapat Gali Olivine mines in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan are situated at an altitude of over 4,000 m above sea level and although the path was upgraded for all-terrain vehicles in 2014 it is still a very inaccessible gemstone occurrence and is snow-covered for half of the year. Specimens from Sapat Gali first started to reach mineral collectors in the western world from about 2000 onwards, with most of the best individual crystals having been collected pre-2010. This rich, lime-green individual crystal is not only well-formed, but is very large for this locality too, at 4.5 cm in length, when most are around 2 cm. Many crystals from this locality are very rounded and although this piece has some curved surfaces it has a well-defined wedge-shaped termination with resinous, naturally etched crystal faces. Internally, a few small hair-like inclusions of Ludwigite can be seen and externally small dark-grey patches of Magnetite are present. Ex Francis Coune Collection (Belgium).