Beryl

specimen number:
1052750

location:
Izumrudnye Kopi, Malyshevo, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia

description:

Classic Russian specimen with lustrous translucent green crystals of beryl, this is the variety known as emerald, measuring to 1.8 cm in length across both sides of a schist matrix. In good condition. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video. The original acquisition date for this specimen was 1912. This is an excellent Russian classic.

Izumrudnye Kopi, situated along the Tokovaya River in the Sverdlovsk region of the Ural Mountains, Russia, was a world-renowned mining district famous for producing exceptional emerald and chrysoberyl crystals. Geologically, the deposit consists of a complex network of desilicated granitic pegmatites that intruded into deeply buried ultra-mafic rocks like serpentinites, creating a highly specialized metamorphic reaction zone characterized by phlogopite glimmerite schists. The intense structural deformation and chemical interaction between the beryllium-rich pegmatitic fluids and the chromium-rich ultra-mafic host rocks allowed for the crystallization of vibrant green emerald prisms embedded directly within the dark mica matrix. Historically, the accidental discovery of the first emerald crystals by a local charcoal burner in 1830 triggered an immediate mining boom, leading to the establishment of the imperial Urals Emerald Mines under strict government administration in 1831. Extensive underground shaft sinking and localized open-cut quarrying operated almost continuously under various private leases and state control throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, transitioning heavily toward strategic beryllium extraction for industrial and military applications during the Soviet era before large-scale commercial mining ceased in the late 1990s.

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