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Tourmaline

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MGR840563

Tourmaline

Description Tabs

Description
Locality: 
Rubaya, Masisi Territory, North Kivu, DR Congo
Class: 
Single Crystal
Size Range: 
Miniature (4.5-7 cm)
Size: 
4.7 × 1 × 0.9 cm
Description

Caused by the political and the strong ethnic tensions it is very difficult to get material from the locality. Further the region has no good infrastructure, no electric power (except a few small towns), nothing which is worth to be judged as street in our countries, no clean water (or water at all) - under this circumstances only small miners work under very primitive conditions - in fact they dig holes in the ground with hand-tools. So material from Congo was always very rare - and this one is even more special caused by the wonderful pink color. The faces are highly lustrous, the end-points show amazing modifications and the transparency and clarity is on very high level - the upper half is nearly flawless and in cut-quality, and even the lower half shows only minor fuzzy inclusions. No backlight - the piece was just standing on a white sheet of paper for the photo! Undamaged.

Mineral Data
What's on the rock

Tourmaline

Formula: 
A(D3)G6(T6O18)(BO3)3X3Z
Crystal System: 
Trigonal
Hardness: 
7