Elbaite

specimen number:
2102446

location:
Himalaya Mine, San Diego Co., California, USA

description:

Classic green and pink translucent lustrous terminated crystal of elbaite for this locality. In good condition. This is naturally crystallized on the base as seen in the video.

The Himalaya mine, located in the Mesa Grande district of San Diego County, California, is a historic gem pegmatite deposit famous for its massive yield of elbaite tourmaline specimens. Geologically, the deposit consists of a thin, shallow-dipping granitic pegmatite dike system that cuts through Cretaceous-aged gabbro host rocks belonging to the Peninsular Ranges Batholith. Slow cooling and pocket development within the highly evolved, volatile-rich magmatic system produced extensive open cavities lined with exceptionally well-crystallized pink and green tourmaline, lepidolite, cleavelandite, and microcline. Commercial mining began shortly after its discovery in 1898 by Gail Lewis, expanding dramatically under the Himalaya Mining Company from 1902 to 1912 to supply the Chinese Imperial Court with pink carving-grade tourmaline. Following a long period of dormancy after the collapse of the Chinese market, the property was acquired by Pala International in 1977, which conducted highly successful underground mechanized mining until 1998, after which operations shifted primarily to public fee-digging and periodic small-scale specimen extraction.

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