Spessartine

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A fine example of a garnet from a MAJOR NEW FIND! The full locality information for this deposit is near the town of Loliondo, close to Serengeti National Park and 7 km from the Kenyan border, W-NW of the north end of Lake Natron. It is closed to heavy traffic and on Maasai tribal lands. Some of these are extremely large; the more gemmy ones, as this one, tend to be smaller - though this is still a BIG garnet by most standards! These had quietly been emerging from a small prospect in remote Tanzania and hoarded for sale at the Tucson show. This crystal is complete all around and has a LOT of gemminess to it, lighting up a pretty orangey-red color, similar to a good Chinese scheelite, under strong light. This crystal weighs 32 grams, so again, it is still a big garnet, and of very good quality for the find!