Elbaite

specimen number:
2292378

location:
Minas Gerais, Brazil

description:
A lustrous translucent fat green terminated crystal of elbaite. In good condition. Naturally healed on the base. This weighs 29.21 g.

The Eastern Brazilian Pegmatite Province in Minas Gerais contains a dense concentration of complex granitic pegmatites. These geological formations intruded the region during the late Brasiliano orogeny, approximately 500 to 600 million years ago, when tectonic collisions generated extensive granitic magmatism. As these massive bodies of magma slowly cooled deep in the crust, volatile-rich residual fluids concentrated rare elements such as lithium, beryllium, boron, and fluorine, prompting the crystallization of large minerals inside zoned internal pockets. Historically, early Portuguese explorers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries first encountered these pegmatites while searching for gold and diamonds, initially misidentifying the green tourmaline crystals they uncovered as emeralds. Systematic mining of these deposits evolved significantly during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, initially to extract industrial sheet mica for wartime electrical applications before transitioning into the recovery of mineral specimens and gemstones, including tourmaline, aquamarine, spodumene, and topaz.

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