Dioptase

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Most specimens from this new mine are relatively gracile and elegant, or contain massive dioptase with small crystals shooting from it. This special piece is a relative monster, in comparison. It is a large specimen of massive dioptase, with a bit of matrix backing it, on which sit FAT, robust, squarish crystals of dioptase of huge size. That large crystal is 4.5 x 2.6 x 2.4 cm in size!!! It is contacted at the base, but is pristine on its termination and displays very dramatically. The crystals to the lower-left of the big one look oddly squarish- a habit I simply have never seen in dioptase, ever, from anywhere. Although the piece isn't perfect at the edges, it presents a display core that is impactful and shocking for the size of that central crystal; and I think is of some importance in the literal sense of the word, for the species.