Elbaite with Quartz and Lepidolite - image 1

Elbaite with Quartz and Lepidolite

Unknown Owner

This is a fine all round example of a tourmaline-bearing pegmatite assemblage from the famous Coronel Murta pegmatites in northern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Very large miniature in size it is dominated by a well-formed but dull, terminated, stocky 5.9 cm tall Quartz crystal surrounded on its base by sparkling pale purple micaceous aggregates of Lepidolite. Adding yet more colour, two short, stocky, raspberry-red prismatic Elbaite tourmaline crystals are attached to the lower part of the main Quartz crystal where it joins with the Lepidolite. One of these Elbaite crystals is a really nicely formed 1.1 cm long crystal, in great condition with a three-sided pyramidal termination, but the other is poorly terminated where a pencil-shaped Elbaite crystal had straddled it but has since been lost, leaving a groove. Another long (1.2 cm) thin, and nicely colour-zoned, Elbaite crystal is attached to the Quartz crystal higher up, and is doubly-terminated, displaying contrasting flat pinacoid and pyramidal terminations. A fine example of a lithium-bearing pegmatite from the gem fields of Brazil.