Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:06 am Posts: 109 Location: Cache Valley,Utah
Hi, I collect premium quality facet rough, and thought about pulling some of the treasures down in the basement out of the vault to share with this faceting community. One of these days I may dare to spin some of these crystals into gems on my faceting machine. The pictures below are as follows,
sorry about the poor picture quality, this is a cheap web cam i used. I APOLOGIZE if i went overboard on the pictures.
Nice pictures I really like the aqua after the red beryl picture, it is hard to find nice aqua rough that is clean for faceting and not better placed in mineral collection, for me I have some nice flawless crystal, but I could never cut them!
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:06 am Posts: 109 Location: Cache Valley,Utah
Hi,
The lower aquamarine crystal was found in Beaver County Utah. Pegamatite dikes in granite outcrops contain the aquamarine in certain areas of Beaumont Basin. We used jaws of life, tempered metal and fence post drivers to break into certain crystal zones and vugs and chimney cavities and uncovered a rather large amount of gem quality pieces. Area is actually BLM public lands. So you can go strike a fortune and not get thrown in jail. Cheers... and I can't walk now to that one. Ahh..legal poison (~sigh~)
Another area where I know where excellent Aquamarine lies still, is in Tooele County, Utah.
In certain areas near Ibapah mountains. Aquamarine can be found in gulleys and washes where quarty and graphite quartz veins subsided nearly 24.5 million years ago. Nice gemmy facet crystal fragments can be found in gulches, and if lucky, fully terminated etched crystals.
Of course, I can't divulge the localities of the exact spots.
The red beryl crystals on the rhyolitic specimen exhibit an unusual
rarity in the form of their morphology. This particular specimen was one of the finest mined out of the wah wah mountains in the early 1980's, when the better gem quality material was being mined. The Specimen has two separate full length hexagonal crystals conjoined to one another, which appears to me to be a twinned crystal. There is also the bigger sized crystal adjacent to the twinned crystals that is glass clean. Surface may be a little frosted, but core of crystal is exquisite. According to chemistry documentation this color, is most desirable when it is deep red. Anhydrous 0.2 wt. % water. Color zoned , k,Na,Al, Zn are higher in cores, whereas Mn,Fe,Ti,Si, and Sn are higher in rims. The red color of rim correlates with an increased content of Mn and Ti. Calculation - utilize a 114.6 mm, refractive indice (Epsilon = 1.567 to 1.568, omega = 1.574. Specific gravity (2.66 to 2.70)
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