Apache Mine (aka Defiance Mine) Vanadinites are rarely available today, especially in this quality. This is a very nice small cabinet piece with several dozen 1 mm to 1.2 cm brick-red, tabular to prismatic hexagonal Vanadinites and at at least one-third of them average just under a centimeter! The Vanadinite crystals are sharply formed and somewhat translucent and their brick-red color contrasts perfectly with the drusy white Calcite that the crystals rest on. The remainder of the piece is a gray matrix with minor iron-staining. Most Apache Mine specimens that are available are not only smaller, but the Vanadinite looks more like a druse so this is piece is quite impressive. The crystals are in excellent condition with some minor contacting at the periphery. Bruce Murphy was known for a fine Southwest/Arizona suite, and his label notes this was collected in 1982 by John Mediz, and then went to the Becky Bind collection.
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