Ajoite and Copper in Quartz
Unknown Owner
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A great crystalline Quartz miniature with a lot going on! This piece from the Messina Mine in South Africa constitutes an "internal combination specimen"! It's Quartz with both Ajoite AND Native Copper found included within the piece and there's a Quartz phantom to boot! The piece represents a single milky to clear Quartz crystal that has bifurcated and grown around a piece of interfering matrix resulting in it being terminated by three points! The lower, milky half of the crystal reveals patchy inclusions of bright teal blue Ajoite from 2mm to 1cm in maximum dimension. Native Copper is located internal to the more transparent part of the main termination and assumes the shape of small, 1 to 2mm, irregular, bright, foil-like aggregates. The copper is interior to the two phantoms. The primary phantom is highlighted by a 1mm thick dusting of a charcoal gray mineral (Graphite?) and the second phantom immediately shadows this one above it, but is less obvious. As an added bonus, the matrix between the Quartz terminations has numerous, tiny water-clear Quartz crystals with some ocherous Goethite balls and then clusters and patches of microcrystals of a bright green-yellow unidentified mineral that occurs as rosettes of platy aggregates with a pearly luster! Ex. Scott Williams collection. 21 grams
Product details
SizeMiniature
Dimensions4.5 x 2.3 x 1.9 cm
Added on10/23/2024
LocalitySouth Africa, Limpopo, Messina Mine
Known provenance
| Date | Collector | Acquisition price |
|---|---|---|
| 08/2024 | Unknown Owner | Not disclosed |
| — | The Arkenstone | Not disclosed |
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Mineral guide
Learn about Copper
native copper with spinel-twinned crystals and arborescences; notable from Lake Superior, Itauz, Dongchuan, Corocoro, prized for color and localities.Regional guide
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