Elbaite Tourmaline

Unknown Owner

Coronel Murta in Jequitinhonha Valley, Minas Gerais, Brazil is renowned for its superb raspberry red Elbaite tourmaline crystals. The very best specimens are an intense saturated red colour and gemmy throughout, but command exceptional prices. This miniature specimen - a 5 cm tall single crystal - is a nice pale raspberry pink colour, but where it darker pink-red throughout its lowermost 80 % it is inclusion-rich and not so gemmy. The colour is nice though, and it has a flat pinacoid termination with a darker pink gemmy tip. A tiny fragment of white matrix is present on one edge of its base. There are a couple of fractures present across the prism, one of which looks like it might have been repaired, but this is not recorded. Overall, this a lovely colourful Elbaite tourmaline from a classic locality, and is a good size for a smaller display.