Apatite

This specimen has a story worth telling.. it comes from the old Blesberg Mine in the area. (For those that do not know the mine it was the largest producer of high grade feldspar in the country) Years back we had made friends with the then mine manager who was also dabbling in minerals they found at the mine or in the area. One night he called telling us he had found emeralds, lots of them and they where huge!

Knowing the area, roughly 10km from the mine there is a emerald site where one could find tiny green emeralds in schist, of course with this knowledge and the description i immediatly took the 650km drive to go and see what was happening. 

On arrival i learned that the mine had exposed a pocket large enough to house 4 men in it, filled with quartz crystals up to two feet long, masses of cleavlandite and some hyaline and of course these "emeralds"... 

The manager had carefully spent his time chipping the "emeralds" off the matrix and throwing them into steel buckets (He had two full buckets).

Needless to say, we never managed to get any on matrix but we have a few of these and this is one of them. 

Officially it's apatite from the Blesberg Mine, Jakkalswater region, Steinkopf, Northern Cape, South Africa. 

Packed shipping weight 90gr.