Elbaite with Lepidolite

specimen number:
2072208

location:
Urubu Mine, Itinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil

description:
An attractive lustrous slightly translucent thick green terminated crystal of elbaite with lepidolite crystals. In good condition.

The Urubu Mine, located in the Itinga municipality of the Jequitinhonha Valley in Minas Gerais, Brazil, is a classic granitic pegmatite locality famous for its gemstone and specimen production. Geologically, it is part of the Eastern Brazilian Pegmatite Province, consisting of a complexly zoned lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite body that intruded into the regional Neoproterozoic schists of the Aracuai Orogen. The mine is mineralogically significant for its variety of tourmaline species, particularly elbaite, as well as beryl, lepidolite, and superb crystals of hydroxylherderite. Historically, the mine has been worked primarily by independent garimpeiros using small-scale underground and open-cast methods. Operations at Urubu were most prolific during the 1970s and 1980s, when it gained international fame for yielding large pockets of vibrant, multi-colored tourmalines and rare phosphate minerals. While activity has fluctuated over the decades based on the discovery of new mineralized zones, it remains a quintessential Brazilian locality that continues to provide high-quality specimens to the global mineral market.

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