This specimen hosts a complex 4.5 x 3.5 x 2.5 cm crystal, perched atop a natural pedestal of matrix. Well excavated, it displays beautifully. The long face of the crystal actually runs down the right-back side as shown, so that you can see more of the complex faces atop from the display angle, to my eye. As with most of these, there are a few very minor bits of edge wear but nothing too distracting. It is essentially complete even on the backside. This is the largest crystal I know of from this mystery deposit, the largest I have obtained from the source, and was in fact mounted for display in the past on an oldfashioned styrofoam base for exhibition by him. Collected in the Sierra Mountains in about 1965 by a well-known field collector named Bob Raduenz, who to this day refuses to divulge the exact locality but has also failed to find more there. These are clearly distinct from the Champion Mine rutiles from Mono county in appearance, and in chemical composition as per the Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy report shown for this update (with Niobium running nearly 25% by weight).

An unusually large, very significant rutile crystal from the old Champion Mine, in the mountains of Northern California. The crystal has minor edge wear on a few edges, and is contacted in back, but nevertheless displays magnificently and is both large and extremely well colored for this locality. It is a major specimen, comparable only to a few others I know of from the place. Old material, seldom seen today. From the Larry Conklin collection

Undoubtedly an old specimen, this piece is typical of a size and style said to be found here in the very early days, late 1800s to early 1900s. I have seen only a very few rutile specimens even approaching this size (in the Smithsonian and American Museums), and its degree of preservation and perfection is shocking (it is pristine and complete all around!). I have seen no brookite of this size, period, from here. This is a kind of pseudomorph replacement called a paramorph, now. It is no longer a brookite despite its apparent habit: A paramorph (also called allomorph) is a mineral changed on the molecular level. The mineral looks identical to the original unaltered form of the brookite (which is normally orthorhombic and not as heavy or robust as rutile) but is now replaced by another form of natural titanium oxide, (tetragonal) rutile . This is, I think, a MAJOR US locality specimen and a major rutile by any worldwide standard

Although now almost impossible to find on the market, there were at one time a number of these available in the mid-1990s, mined by the crew of a colorful ex-KGB colonel-turned-mineral-dealer. I have not had a good one back in years. This was a fine, very highly rated miniature which i sold back in the late 1990s and got back recently. It features a crystal of 3 cm across, perched smartly atop crystallized quartz matrix. The association, and the quality of these lustrous rutiles, made them instantly wanted by the top collectors at the time. And none were found since, seemingly. This crystal is doubly-terminated and complete all around save only a shallow contact groove in the upper-rear side, not seen from the display face in any case. Joe Budd photos