Description

Detailed Description

A complex, sharp spessartine crystal, with brilliant, lustrous faces. Crystals this size from this find were often too dark to allow much light to pass to pass through, but this one exhibits great internal deep red under colour the lights. In excellent condition, no damage save for one small chip at the bottom.

It’s a bit hard to orient some of these photos – the fourth and sixth show the specimen from either side, and the fifth shows the back.

As you can see in the photos, this Navegadora spessartine can look different in different lighting conditions. The photographs here are meant to show the lustre, the detail (amazing in close – you can get lost in this crystal), the beautiful internal colour when well lit, and also the dark appearance in lower light conditions. When looking at this specimen under modest light, it is very dark red, with glints of transparent red (as shown in the third photo). Under display lights, the lustre is really great..

This is a spectacular spessartine.

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About these Spessartines

These spessartines are from the famous March 2003 pocket at the Navegadora Mine. The Navegadora Mine exploits a pegmatite and produces feldspar for commercial purposes – It is not mined for specimens, and this pocket was unique. In an article in Rocks and Minerals (“Spessartine from the Navegadora Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil” Vol. 84, Jan-Feb 2009) author John White discusses how these spessrtines formed. While etching was involved, the specific mechanism that resulted in the final forms of these etched crystals remains a mystery.