Celestine

specimen number:
2063016

location:
Sakoany, Katsepy, Mitsinjo, Boeny, Madagascar

description:
An attractive mostly loose crystal of glassy gem quality sharply formed Celestine. Perfect all around. From the 1980s, the specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark, as well as one from Gilbert Gauthier.

The Sakoany deposit in the Katsepy commune of the Mitsinjo District (Boeny Region, Madagascar) is an artisanal mining area world-famous for producing exceptional museum-quality celestine crystals. Discovered by a local herder and opened for systematic extraction in 1967, the site is not a conventional structured underground mine but rather a vast field of shallow hand-dug pits that remains active today with no official closure. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within a Lower Paleocene sedimentary sequence consisting of marly and sandy layers resting on fossiliferous limestones, where strontium-rich solutions precipitated outstanding blue celestine geodes.

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