Hibonite

$12,500.00

$40.00 shipping
Seller offers an extended return window of up to 30 days
Ships from USA

Crystal ClassicsFeatured

Tucson, Arizona, USA

7,543 for sale·132 sold

Hibonite is an interesting mineral species. Chemically it is calcium aluminium oxide and hard enough to be considered a gemstone (7.5 to 8 on the Mohs scale), but rarely is it colourful or translucent. Indeed, the majority of its reported occurrences are from inclusions in meteorites with the exception of a few rare pegmatite occurrences. Remarkably, the highest concentration of localities with Hibonite are on the island of Madagascar, which is also the place where it was first discovered as a new species in the 1950s. This magnificent crystallized Hibonite from Madagascar, features a huge 5.7 cm long tapering doubly-terminated hexagonal lozenge-shaped black crystal in a large miniature-sized matrix. This is a very significant crystal for this extremely rare species and displays the classic 'stepped', almost layered surface texture - where inclusions of surrounding minerals are embedded within the layers - perfectly. This specimen is not from the original Type Locality which was an alluvial deposit at Esiva but is from a more recent find in the same Tranomaro-Maromby area. It comes with a custom-made acryllic Sunnywood display stand which displays it perfectly with the Hibonite crystal in a nice upright position. It is from the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021).