Tourmaline (Elbaite) with Cleavelandite

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A perfectly formed Elbaite Tourmaline crystal, partly embedded in a matrix of snow white Cleavelandite from the famous and historic Pala Chief mine at Pala in San Diego County, California, USA. The Elbaite is greenish blue tending to very much an Indicolite, with vertically striated prism faces and a flat, micro-stippled textured pinacoid termination. The prism is gemmy and in intense transmitted light varies between leafy green and indigo blue. The overall dimensions of the specimen are 5.5 x 5.0 x 5.0 cm, with the Elbaite prism taking up the majority of its height. The Pala Chief mine is one of the most famous gem pegmatite mines in California and the USA as a whole. It was discovered in May 1903, high on the slopes of Chief Mountain and was worked initially for only eleven years, with mining coming to an end in 1914. The mine was next worked during the 1960s and is still worked as an intermittent operation. It has produced magnificent Elbaite, gem Spodumene and Beryl, a typical lithium pegmatite gem assemblage. \n