Rutile

specimen number:
2102442

location:
Graves Mountain, Lincoln Co., Georgia, USA

description:
Sharp lustrous crystal of rutile on matrix. In good condition. Nice thumbnail.

The Graves Mountain deposit, located near Lincolnton in Lincoln County, Georgia, is a classic American mineral locality renowned for producing sharp rutile, lazulite, and pyrophyllite specimens. Geologically, the site is a prominent monadnock composed of metamorphosed kyanite-quartz rock within the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian-aged Carolina Slate Belt. Intense hydrothermal alteration and regional metamorphism converted the original volcanic sediments into a quartz-kyanite rock, with subsequent lower-grade metamorphic fluids precipitating massive and well-crystallized rutile, blue lazulite, iridescent hematite, and radiating pyrophyllite in fractures and quartz veins. Commercial quarrying began at the site in 1963 when Combustion Engineering, Inc. developed an open-pit operation to extract kyanite for use in high-temperature refractories and ceramics. Industrial mining operations continued for over two decades until the quarry was shut down in 1986 due to economic shifts, after which the property was preserved exclusively for recreational and professional mineral specimen collecting under managed access.

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