Elbaite Tourmaline

Unknown Owner

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Coronel Murta is a small town in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais, nearby which are a series of gem bearing pegmatite bodies from which this superb multicoloured cluster of Tourmaline crystals was mined. The longest crystal measures 8.3 cm and attached to this just below its termination are two smaller crystals measuring 4.0 and 2.7 cm. The predominant colour is cerise pink, although the main prism does vary from cerise to colourless to champaign to pink to plum, finally terminating with a band of intense cerise pink. The two attached crystals are a more uniform cerise pink. All three crystals are perfectly terminated with flat pinacoids while the mid-sized prism has a few micro milky Quartz crystals attached near its termination. Tectonic activity over geological history often breaks Tourmaline crystal while in-situ and this specimen contains two professionally made repairs, neither of which is visible.