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(numbered ERONGO09-301 to 340) selections from a new pocket discovered in August, 2009 of intense blue AQUAMARINE on SCHORL from the ERONGO MOUNTAINS, NAMIBIA
This specimen features a large, fat aqua impaling the matrix of schorl and hyalite opal. The aqua actually DOES run all the way through, and sticks out the other side. It is 7 cm long, though only 4-4.5 cm sticks up from the matrix after it passes through. The aqua is pristine and undamaged, though some of the schorls surrounding it are broken and have edge wear. Nevertheless, a VERY dramatic specimen for the size and price range, and the aqua itself is, again, pristine. It has the most robust deep blue color I have seen before in an Erongo specimen, with a translucent and deeply colored body and a gemmy termination atop. The intense color, and large size, combined with lustre and a contrasting schorl association, all conspire to make this a special pocket considered by those who saw them recently at the Denver show to be among the best aqua finds here in about a decade of quite sporadic aquamarine mining.
The larger crystal measures 6.5 x 3 x 2 cm in size, and the smaller is about 4.5 x 3 x 2 cm. These fat, 3-dimensional crystals tick out dramatically from a matrix of albite, and with schorl in the background for contrast. The matrix is actually a portion of an albite crystal, not just massive rock. There is a small bit of edge wear to each crystal's termination, which detracts only a tiny bit visually if you go looking, but for which the price is reduced quite a bit from the original price given to me in the "lot" group i bought. It has the most robust deep blue color I have seen before in an Erongo specimen, with a translucent and deeply colored body and a gemmy termination atop. The intense color, and large size, combined with lustre and a contrasting schorl association, all conspire to make this a special pocket considered by those who saw them recently at the Denver show to be among the best aqua finds here in about a decade of quite sporadic aquamarine mining.
A dramatic 7 x 2.2 x 2 cm aquamarine here looks like it is about to leap off a well-trimmed matrix of schorl and albite. The piece is, for the size range, one of the most dramatic I saw of this new lot for those who like simple, stark dominant-crystal aesthetics. The aquamarine is freestanding on half its length, and is complete all around. It is nearly pristine with just the tiniest bits of edge wear (I am told this is from the difficulty of collecting these while having to hang upside down). It has the most robust deep blue color I have seen before in an Erongo specimen, with a translucent and deeply colored body and a gemmy termination atop. The intense color, and large size, combined with lustre and a contrasting schorl association, all conspire to make this a special pocket considered by those who saw them recently at the Denver show to be among the best aqua finds here in about a decade of quite sporadic aquamarine mining.
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