I’ve posted excellent new specimens in this Indonesia Update (click here). This update includes beautiful amethyst and chalcedony, the latter from the collections of John S. White and Tracy Kimmel.

Over the past five years, I’ve gradually cherry picked a select group of “grape amethyst” – these pieces feature beautiful groups of amethyst balls. A number of these pieces feature the top colour, top sparkle and top quality – this is the material that is so hard to obtain.

Originally referred to as “grape agate”, specimens were first found in the Mamuju area in 2015. These specimens are recovered from clay, in the spaces between the “pillows” in pillow lava.  Although they were first known as “grape agate”, they are not cryptocrystalline (and therefore are not agate) – they are balls of radiating crystalline quartz. When the find first came to market, there was a large amount of material, much of which was poor quality. The diggers then began to produce higher quality specimens. The article on this material in the Mineralogical Record (Nov-Dec. 2018) predicted that the production of fine specimens would decline. It speculated, based upon local sources, that all specimen mining of the pillow lava deposits would likely cease by about 2023 or 2024. Production of very fine specimens has indeed declined, although it has continued to a lesser degree, thanks to considerable financing from dealers abroad. It seems likely that the decline will continue. As with all mineral specimen localities, the ultimate accuracy of such speculation varies. In this case, the limited geographical extent of the known pillow lava deposits is a key factor.

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 5.9 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 11.3 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 8.6 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Field of view 4.0 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 8.9 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 6.4 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 9.2 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 5.8 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 5.9 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 5.4 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 3.5 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 8.4 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 5.5 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 6.9 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 8.6 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 4.6 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Field of view 1.5 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Field of view 2.9 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst with celadonite inclusions, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province,
Sulawesi, Indonesia – 5.1 cm

Quartz, var. Amethyst, Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia – 5.1 cm

Quartz var. Chalcedony, Central Java Province, Java, Indonesia – 4.8 cm

Quartz var. Chalcedony, Central Java Province, Java, Indonesia – 9.2 cm

Quartz var. Chalcedony, Central Java Province, Java, Indonesia – 8.0 cm