Topaz

Rubaya, Masisi Territory,

North Kivu, DR Congo

Photo by Tomer Shapira

Here's a neat, just "slightly blue" Topaz, one of the poster-boy gem minerals for pegmatites along with gem tourmaline group minerals, beryl, almandine-spessartine garnets.....pegmatitic usual suspects.

And boy are they collectible....big, gemmy, flashy crystals, not hard to come by for pegmatitic topaz, even without breaking the bank. Obviously, this varies by locality....(and if you are going to argue that I'm wrong while mentioning imperial topaz, those aren't pegmatitic so we aren't talking about them 🤣)

Speaking of locality, this "just slightly blue" Topaz is from Rubaya. Turns out there might be more than just Coltan and Gem Tourmaline coming out of there....