This South-Africa – Kenya Update (click here) includes a small number of excellent specimens. From South Africa, there are beautiful complex hematite crystals from the N’Chwaning II Mine. And from Kenya, there is a small group of the superb epidotes from Pakot, North Eastern Province, from the 2002 find.

Hematite, N’Chwaning II Mine, Kalahari Manganese Fields, Northern Cape Province, South Africa – 4.8 cm

Hematite, N’Chwaning II Mine, Kalahari Manganese Fields, Northern Cape Province, South Africa – 3.5 cm

Even though the finest quality epidotes from Pakot rank among the world’s finest, to date not much has been written about them. The find occurred in 2002 in North Eastern Province, which was known at the time as Northern Frontier District, or NFD. It is noted by Tom Moore in his write-up of the 2003 Tucson show (The Mineralogical Record, May-June, 2003, Vol. 34:3). The deposit, described as a metamorphic skarn, was worked by Wayne Thompson and the late, famous African mineral explorer Campbell Bridges. This is a remote area of Kenya, home to tribal communities and is sometimes a conflict region, so mineral specimen collecting is not an easy or frequent matter – this 2002 find was remarkable.

Epidote, Pakot, North Eastern Province, Kenya – 7.7 cm

Epidote, Pakot, North Eastern Province, Kenya – this field of view shows approximately 4.5 cm of this crystal