MIX17B-33
Despujolsite (largest crystal)
N'Chwaning III Mine, Kalahari Manganese Field, South Africa
Thumbnail, 1.9 x 1.4 x 0.7 cm
Ex. Marshall Sussman
SOLD

Despujolsite was found in this world class quality only once, in one pocket, at the N'Chwaning III mine shortly after it opened. The pocket was sold to Marshall Sussman at the time, and this was the holdback he kept for his small but choice suite of Kalahari Thumbnails/Miniatures, hidden away and built for years in the drawers under his famous Tsumeb and Namibia general collections. It is supposed to be the largest crystal of the species, glassy and translucent, with a strange and perhaps unique gradient of yellow-green to green-orange coloration, these well formed crystals of depujolsite form a flower-like cluster with individual crystals that reach 1.7 cm in length, and with the largest crystal being doubly terminated. Depujolsite is a rare, hydrated, calcium, manganese sulfate. I have not seen any newly found crystals for years, so this seems to have been a one-off find - sadly typical for this magnificent rich, but industrially exploited, deposit.