Vesuvianite

specimen number:
1052699

location:
Bazhenovskoye, Asbest, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia

description:
Brilliant green lustrous slightly translucent prismatic crystals of vesuvianite, these green in color due to the presence of chromium, measuring to 0.8 cm in size across the front of matrix. In good condition with some contacting present. The specimen comes with an antique label which has an original acquisition date of 1911. This is shown at the end of the video.

The Bazhenovskoye deposit, situated near the industrial town of Asbest in the central Ural Mountains of Russia, is a world-class mineral locality famous for producing exceptional, emerald-green crystals of chromium-rich vesuvianite. Geologically, this massive deposit is located within a colossal Paleozoic-age ophiolite complex, where extensive bodies of ultra-mafic peridotite underwent intense serpentinization. Hydrothermal fluids circulating through the fractured serpentinite caused the metasomatic alteration of gabbroic dikes into calcium-rich rodingite zones, drawing chromium from the surrounding rock to precipitate well-crystallized chromian vesuvianite, often associated with chromian grossular garnet and diopside inside open pockets. Historically, the deposit was discovered in 1885, and organized open-pit quarrying and surface mining operations officially commenced in 1889 to extract high-grade chrysotile asbestos. Production expanded rapidly during the early twentieth century, continuing through the Russian Revolution into massive Soviet-era industrial operations, and the site remains one of the largest active open-pit mining complexes in the world through 2026.

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