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22 Sharp Royal Blue BENITOITE Crystals on 2.5"Matrix-CA
$275.00130401519209
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EXCELLENT ROYAL BLUE
BENITOITE
CRYSTALS
ON NATROLITE
~ DALLAS GEM MINE, CALIFORNIA ~
(THE MINE IS CLOSED)
SIZE:
2.5" x 1.8" x 0.7"
SHIPPING WEIGHT:
0.7 POUNDS
GORGEOUS
ROYAL BLUE COLOR!
SHARP TRIGONAL
CRYSTALS!
EXCELLENT SPECIMEN FROM A CLASSIC, NOW CLOSED LOCALITY
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CONDITION:
EXCELLENT
(click here to learn
what this means)
Excellent gemmy royal blue benitoite crystals
Click on the picture to see enlarged view
Click arrow to see a video of this fine mineral specimen
Very sharp crystalsThe lucite display square shown in the photo is included FREE with this specimen
Click on the pictures
for enlarged view
Excellent contrast with white natrolite
Great 2.5" matrix
DESCRIPTIONHere's a beautiful specimen of GEMMY BLUE BENITOITE on NATROLITE. This specimen comes from the DALLAS GEM MINE, SAN BENITO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, and was collected many years ago from the old dumps, which were being reworked. The mine was shut down and reopened several times, and Bryan Lees even tried hard-rock mining this deposit for several years. The mine has recently been shut down by the EPA because it is near an asbestos deposit. Now it's extremely unlikely that there will be any quantity of quality material available again (though there is always a trickle of older pieces like this one coming out of people's cellars). So, if you don't have a good piece of this highly-prized material in your collection, you may want to pick one up soon, before the prices balloon sky high.
Benitoite is a somewhat obscure, but wonderful gemstone mineral that was only discovered at the beginning of this century. It has a sapphire blue color and was first thought to be a variety of sapphire. But x-ray studies showed that the crystal structure was unlike any mineral previously discovered. It is one of only a few minerals to crystallize in the bar 6 m 2 class called the ditrigonal-dipyramidal symmetry class. While this class is techically hexagonal, it produces trigonal (triangular) looking crystals. Additionally benitoite is also a fluorescent mineral. Nearly all specimens of benitoite will fluoresce a beautiful pale blue color under UV light.
Benitoite is associated with a few rare minerals such as black-red neptunite, snow white natrolite and brown-yellow joaquinite. The only source of this rare combination occures at San Benito, California. They are formed in fractures of a serpentine rock from hydrothermal solutions. These solutions contained a number of unusual elements such as barium, titanium, fluorine, iron, cesium, niobium, manganese and lithium in relatively high concentrations. How such a solution occurred and what other conditions caused the crystallization of these rare minerals is still not well understood. The rare clusters of blue benitoite and black neptunite on top of a crust of white natrolite produces a truly fantastic and a one of a kind mineral combination that is a must have for a serious mineral collector.
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