Description

Detailed Description

A beautiful group of deep green elbaite tourmaline crystals, with white blades of albite. The elbaite zoning begins very dark green, moving to a lighter tone of green and capped with a very thin colourless zone at the termination. The central crystal is dark, while the one to the right of it shows its colour well, because light reflects through it from the albite behind. The tops of the crystals have a slightly frosted look. In excellent condition, these are singly-terminated, and to the eye they are free of damage – with magnification you can see a couple of minor chips. There is a small group of deep orange-brown microcrystals I suspect may be monazite. This is a gorgeous tourmaline crystal arrangement, with the contrasting albite.

(Note: the colour in these is brought out best with either a strong light or a reflector to one side.)

About These Stak Nala Tourmalines

Since the 1980s, elbaite toumaline crystals from the pegmatites at Stak Nala have been known worldwide. Particularly distinctive and prized when associated with albite crystals, these tourmalines are usually colour-zoned, with dark green to black-appearing centre sections, with zones of green, pink, blue or colourless zones  at the terminations – often, a closer inspection with strong light or a strong reflective background are needed to show these zones. The doubly-terminated crystals from Stak Nala are super examples of hemimorphism (the crystal forms present at one termination are different from those at the other termination). I was fortunate to acquire these from a member of the family that mines them.