Dear Platinum Members:

Seven mineral specimens from China, Peru, Mexico, and the United States make up our special offers this month.  These specimens exhibit a rainbow of colors ranging from pink and blue through jet black, intense purple, honey-yellow, brassy-yellow, and even an iridescent red-violet-gold.  While the color range is eye-catching, the strong point of this group of specimens is actually their superb crystal structures.  These specimens take the shape of long, heavily striated prisms; large, sharp-edged cubes; nodules with crystalline surfaces; and well-developed octahedral and tetrahedral crystals.  Please study the following descriptions and let us know which specimens you wish to acquire to enhance your collection.

Please continue to visit our website as we expand resources available to our members.

Purple Fluorite: These cabinet-sized specimens of purple fluorite are from a classic locality—the Wushan fluorite mines of Jiangxi Province, China.  Specimens are about six inches long and four inches high and weigh about two pounds.  Each is an aggregate of clusters of sharp–edged, beautifully developed, interlocking, cubic crystals with numerous penetration twins.  The bright, vitreous crystal faces are clearly “stepped” to show the intricacy of the internal cubic structure.  Color is an intense purple and backlighting reveals the transparency of these superb crystals.  These are wonderful pieces for both display and study of the cubic-crystal form and structure.  Specimen sizes: 5.3”X 3.5” TO 8”X 6”

Azurite Nodules: Azurite, a basic copper carbonate and one of the most collectible of all copper minerals, is known for its deep-blue color.  These specimens, from the Concepción del Oro Mine in Zacatecas, Mexico, have a very unusual habit as spherical nodules with an intricate, textured surface consisting of countless small, lustrous, tabular crystals.  Each walnut-size specimen is the result of oxidation of copper-sulfide minerals followed by redeposition in a vein-type environment. Size Ranges: 1”x 1” to 2”x 1.25”

Schorl: also known as black tourmaline, is a basic sodium iron aluminum borosilicate that is a member of the tourmaline-mineral group.  These specimens, collected in the pegmatite fields of Minas Gerais, Brazil, are jet-black, opaque, and have a bright, vitreous luster.  Each specimen is a single, massive prism five to six inches in length and about one inch in width.  Prismatic faces are dominated by the patterns of prominent, longitudinal striations that are typical of tourmaline-group minerals. Specimen Sizes: 3.5”x1.5” to 8”x 2”

Elbaite: These well-developed, transparent prisms of elbaite, the most familiar and valuable of the tourmaline-group minerals are from the Jenipapo district of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and are about one inch long and one-third of an inch thick with prominent, longitudinal striations and flat terminations.  Each prism consists largely of gem-quality elbaite of the bi-colored “watermelon” variety, and backlighting will clearly show its pale pink and blue-green colors.  Specimen Sizes: 1.5”x .5” to 1.75 x .5”  *These are a special find from a new source in Brazil and we are thrilled to have them. We have specimens available in slightly larger sizes*

Wulfenite: These three-to-four-inch specimens, which consist of crystals of honey-yellow wulfenite, a rare lead-molybdate, atop plates of orange-brown limonite were collected at the historic Ojuela Mine in Durango, Mexico, the classic locality for wulfenite.   Most crystals are well-developed, translucent, elongated prisms with sharp edges and both rounded and pointed terminations.  Some wulfenite crystals also exhibit the more common modified cubic habit. Specimen Sizes: 3.5’x 2” to 5’x 3”    

Quartz, Chalcopyrite, Pyrite, and Sphalerite: Collected from the Animón Mine in Cerro de Pasco Province, Peru, these are wonderfully complex, composite specimens with very well-developed and intimately associated crystals of quartz and three metal sulfides.  Each five-to-six-inch plate consists of a bed of massive sphalerite and chalcopyrite decorated with a maze of hundreds of inch-long, projecting, terminated prisms of clear quartz and modified cubes of bright, lustrous pyrite crystals.  These composite plates make superb display and study specimens. Specimen Sizes: 4”x 2.5” to 9”x 5”

Chalcopyrite on Dolomite: These composite specimens were collected from the Sweetwater Mine in Reynolds County, Missouri, one of the world’s richest lead-mining areas.  Specimens consist of two-inch-plates of massive pyrite completely covered with minor pyrite cubes, white-to-colorless, rhombohedral crystals of dolomite, and iridescent tetragonal crystals of chalcopyrite, a copper iron sulfide.  The chalcopyrite gleams with a spectacular iridescence, exhibiting a broad range of bright, electric hues of violet, red, and gold. Specimen Sizes: 2”x 1” to 6” x 4”    

PINK-PURPLE FLOURITE: These specimens show crystals of fluorite, or calcium fluoride, in its unusual octahedral habit.  These three-inch plates, from the Navidad Mine in Durango, Mexico, are covered with clusters of sharp-edged, nicely developed, interlocking octahedrons, many of which show penetration twinning.  Individual crystals approach a half-inch in size and are translucent with frosted faces.  The color is a rich pink-purple.  Many specimens also exhibit color-contrasting green fluorite and massive, white calcite. Specimen Sizes: 3’x 2.5” to 8”x2

STILL AVAILABLE FROM LAST MONTH:

Microcline: a potassium aluminum silicate and member of the feldspar-mineral group, is a common rock-forming mineral that only rarely occurs as collectible crystals.  These specimens, from the famed pegmatite areas of Chaffee County, Colorado, are clusters of quarter-inch, blocky, triclinic crystals with frosted, sugary faces.  The color is a warm tan with subtle hints of purple.  These microcline crystals, many of which clearly exhibit contact twinning, are associated with white albite and rest atop a matrix of massive microcline. Specimen Sizes: 3.5’ x3.3” –6’x3.5″

Sulfur: is the most colorful of all native elements and these specimens are from a classic locality—the Tlahualilo Sierra gypsum-sulfur mine at Llahualilo, Durango, Mexico—and are excellent examples of sulfur’s bright-yellow color.  These nice display pieces have masses of yellow sulfur crystals, some of which are transparent, have lustrous faces, and range up to one-quarter inch in size.  These yellow sulfur crystals rest on a colorful matrix of white, crystalline gypsum and orange-brown hematite atop a smooth, sawed limestone base. Specimen Sizes: 2.5” x 2”- 5.5”x 3”

Quartz (var. Rock Crystal):Collected from the Tri-State lead-zinc mining district near Joplin in southwestern Missouri, these four-to- five-inch clusters of transparent, colorless quartz crystals show both perfect and bladed, hexagonal  prismatic habits.  The bladed crystals approach two inches in length and are striated and terminated.  These make nice display pieces as well as study specimens for comparison of quartz’s perfect and modified prismatic habits.  Size Ranges: 5’ x 2”- 5” x 3.5”     

Muscovite (var. “Star” Muscovite) on Albite: These specimens of muscovite, the most abundant of the mica-group minerals, have a most unusual and attractive form as thick books of platy, twinned muscovite crystals.  Twinning forms a distinctive, pointed, star-shaped pattern, while the silvery-lemon-yellow of the muscovite “stars” contrast nicely with the white albite matrix.  These specimens are from pegmatites at Linopolis in the Doce Valley, Minas Gerais,Brazil.  Specimen Sizes: 3” x 2”- 5”x 4”   **There are only a few of the larger muscovite specimens left, order now! **

FURTHER INFORMATION:

DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE: If you order 4 or more minerals from the offer sheet, you will receive a 10% discount.

ORDERING: To place an order or if you have any questions, please email me at Christine@mineralofthemonthclub.org or call at #800-941-5594.

SHIPPING: As always, shipping is free in the United States.

SPECIMEN SIZES: All of our specimens are approximate in size.

METHOD OF PAYMENT: We accept, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and checks.

Please make checks payable to Celestial Earth Stones.