Dioptase with Sugary Quartz (Namibia)
72 x 70 x 50 mm
228g
This is the largest Dioptase specimen we've ever brought in, and it's a special one! With a variety of druzy to well-formed crystals, there is also a secondary crystallisation of sugar druzy quartz atop. Also, there's seams of Dioptase running through the specimen, which is just gorgeous!!
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Dioptase is an intense emerald-green to bluish-green copper cyclosilicate mineral. It is an uncommon mineral found mostly in desert regions where it forms as a secondary mineral in the oxidized zone of copper sulfide mineral deposits.
Dioptase was used to highlight the edges of the eyes on the three Pre-Pottery Neolithic B lime plaster statues discovered at 'Ain Ghazal, known as Micah, Heifa and Noah. These sculptures date back to about 7200 BC.
Late in the 18th century, copper miners at the Altyn-Tyube (Altyn-Tube) mine, Karagandy Province, Kazakhstan thought they had found the emerald deposit of their dreams. They found fantastic cavities in quartz veins in a limestone rock, filled with thousands of lustrous transparent emerald-green crystals. The crystals were dispatched to Moscow, Russia, for analysis. However, the mineral's inferior hardness of compared with emerald's greater hardness of easily distinguished it. Eventually, in 1797, Fr. René Just Haüy (the famed French mineralogist) determined that the enigmatic Altyn-Tyube mineral was new to science and named it dioptase (Greek, dia, "doubling" and optos, "visible"), alluding to the mineral's two cleavage directions that are visible inside unbroken crystals.
72 x 70 x 50 mm
228g
This is the largest Dioptase specimen we've ever brought in, and it's a special one! With a variety of druzy to well-formed crystals, there is also a secondary crystallisation of sugar druzy quartz atop. Also, there's seams of Dioptase running through the specimen, which is just gorgeous!!
-----
Dioptase is an intense emerald-green to bluish-green copper cyclosilicate mineral. It is an uncommon mineral found mostly in desert regions where it forms as a secondary mineral in the oxidized zone of copper sulfide mineral deposits.
Dioptase was used to highlight the edges of the eyes on the three Pre-Pottery Neolithic B lime plaster statues discovered at 'Ain Ghazal, known as Micah, Heifa and Noah. These sculptures date back to about 7200 BC.
Late in the 18th century, copper miners at the Altyn-Tyube (Altyn-Tube) mine, Karagandy Province, Kazakhstan thought they had found the emerald deposit of their dreams. They found fantastic cavities in quartz veins in a limestone rock, filled with thousands of lustrous transparent emerald-green crystals. The crystals were dispatched to Moscow, Russia, for analysis. However, the mineral's inferior hardness of compared with emerald's greater hardness of easily distinguished it. Eventually, in 1797, Fr. René Just Haüy (the famed French mineralogist) determined that the enigmatic Altyn-Tyube mineral was new to science and named it dioptase (Greek, dia, "doubling" and optos, "visible"), alluding to the mineral's two cleavage directions that are visible inside unbroken crystals.
72 x 70 x 50 mm
228g
This is the largest Dioptase specimen we've ever brought in, and it's a special one! With a variety of druzy to well-formed crystals, there is also a secondary crystallisation of sugar druzy quartz atop. Also, there's seams of Dioptase running through the specimen, which is just gorgeous!!
-----
Dioptase is an intense emerald-green to bluish-green copper cyclosilicate mineral. It is an uncommon mineral found mostly in desert regions where it forms as a secondary mineral in the oxidized zone of copper sulfide mineral deposits.
Dioptase was used to highlight the edges of the eyes on the three Pre-Pottery Neolithic B lime plaster statues discovered at 'Ain Ghazal, known as Micah, Heifa and Noah. These sculptures date back to about 7200 BC.
Late in the 18th century, copper miners at the Altyn-Tyube (Altyn-Tube) mine, Karagandy Province, Kazakhstan thought they had found the emerald deposit of their dreams. They found fantastic cavities in quartz veins in a limestone rock, filled with thousands of lustrous transparent emerald-green crystals. The crystals were dispatched to Moscow, Russia, for analysis. However, the mineral's inferior hardness of compared with emerald's greater hardness of easily distinguished it. Eventually, in 1797, Fr. René Just Haüy (the famed French mineralogist) determined that the enigmatic Altyn-Tyube mineral was new to science and named it dioptase (Greek, dia, "doubling" and optos, "visible"), alluding to the mineral's two cleavage directions that are visible inside unbroken crystals.
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These are real and natural products, and so might have some flaws or imperfections. We have done our best to pick the best pieces available, but nature is often imperfectly perfect. Therefore, please only make the purchase if you are alright with this.
