Elbaite

specimen number:
2292227

location:
Pederneira Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil

description:
Beautiful cluster of bluish green gemmy elbaite crystals, this perfect all around and in excellent condition. From the early 1990s. Including the base, this weighs 27.84 g.

The Pederneira mine, located in the municipality of Sao Jose da Safira within the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is a world-renowned pegmatite deposit famous for producing exceptional collector specimens of tourmaline, particularly elbaite, alongside large crystals of quartz and lepidolite. Geologically, the deposit is a highly fractionated, zoned granitic pegmatite body that intruded into Neoproterozoic schists of the Araquaia orogenic belt during the late stages of the Brasiliano orogeny. Slow cooling and late-stage hydrothermal pocket fluids allowed for the development of large, gem-climax cavities where multicolored tourmaline crystals grew with minimal tectonic disturbance. Artisanal surface garimpeiro mining began in the district in the 1940s, but systematic, modern underground tunneling and mechanized exploration at Pederneira expanded dramatically in the late 1990s and 2000s under corporate leasing. These operations yielded legendary pockets of pristine, multicolored tourmalines before transitioning to more sporadic, localized specimen mining and maintenance activities that continue into the 2020s.

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