Details
ColorsGrey
Origin
Val Giuv, Kanton Graubunden, Switzerland
SizeSmall
Dimensions7.5 x 3.2 x 1.8 cm
Description
A 1.2 cm milarite crystal graces the top of this floater cluster of quartz, chlorite, and small crystals of apatite. Milarite is a very rare beryllium silicate. Together, the assemblage is sparkly although admittedly the milarite itself is not (not sparkly, but it IS textbook-sharp!). This is typical of the oldest and rarest style of milarite from the type locality material. As I recall, although it is named for the Val Mila next door, the original sources for this seem to have tried to hide the location of the finds to protect their discovery and collect more by saying it came from the valley next door, and the first milarites actually did come from this location, in the Giuv Valley. They get bigger from Brazil in modern times, but these old classics are still desirable and extremely hard to find for sale.