Mixed Minerals!

A beautiful example of tourmaline from an unusual locality.  The vast majority of Afghan tourmalines come from further south, in Kunar and Nuristan provinces. Badakhshan is located at the extreme northeast, and is primarily known for its lapis lazuli, scapolite, and the occasional phlogopite and clinohummite.  The crystal has an appearance that is quite distinctive from the usual Paprok stuff, a bit darker with clear (and more saturated) green and reddish zones.  Older material.

A very unusual specimen from the Michigan copper country.  To begin with, the White Pine Mine is best known for rather flattened copper growths-- the mine worked the Nonesuch Shale beds, laminated strata lacking the open space that allowed for the more three dimensional growth seen in specimens from other northern Michigan mines, which worked through basalt flows.  Considering that lack of growth space, it is somewhat unusual to find such a well formed calcite crystal from the location.  Even more unusual is the silver/ calcite association-- copper/ calcite specimens are known (particularly from the Quincy Mine) but to have a silver/ calcite from anywhere in the region is quite unusual.  A cool rock for the collector of Michigan or Midwestern minerals.

A nice (and reasonably rich) specimen of cuprite from the world famous Tsumeb mine.  The color is more metallic in person, the red comes from the strong lighting.

A beautiful combination specimen of pink tourmaline on quartz.  Both the quartz crystal and the tourmaline are terminated, and the secondary tourmaline crystals all have at least one termination as well. 

A beautiful tourmaline crystal that grades from green, to pink at the termination.

A tiered cluster of fan shaped marcasite crystal aggregates, arranged in a way that makes it look something like a metallic Christmas tree.

A very rare (and decently large, for any locality) cassiterite crystal from a pegmatite locality in Afghanistan.  I have seen a few examples from Pakistan, but never one from Afghanistan-- in fact, Mindat only has photos of 5 examples. The crystal is not perfect: it has a decently sized chip on the lower center, though it actually somewhat blends in with the ridged surfaces of the rest of the crystal. The overall form is great, and it sits perfectly atop an albite matrix... and you will almost certainly NOT find another Afghan example of this magnitude.

A rare, thumbnail sized example of ruby crystals from Nepal.  You see plenty of rubies around from the neighboring countries (from Hunza in Pakistan, Jagdelak in Afghanistan, and various southern Indian localities) but never really any from Nepal.  

A very unusual scapolite crystal from Afghanistan's northerastern-most province.  This crystal comes from the same area as the lapis lazuli mines, and differs substantially from the usually purple (often treated) examples that are often seen these days.  I selected this crystal because the overall form made for a great thumbnail, but also because the phlogopite inclusions made it subtly different from the cookie cutter purples ones.  Seeing a specimen from this area attributed to a specific mine, rather than a general mining region, was also somewhat unusual.

Another unusual Pak/Afghan specimen-- a dramatically arranged cluster of yellow dolomite crystals from Tormiq.  This locality is best known for its Knappenwald-mimicing epidoes and other Alpine style minerals, though this is certainly the first dolomite I've seen from there (or anywhere else in Pakistan, for that matter.). It is an older piece, found around 20 years ago.

A nice thumbnail sized sample of fluorite cubes with partial purple phantoms, from Ohio. 

A very good (for the locality) rutile crystal that seems to show a degree of twining.  I've never seen a single crystal quite this large from here, though I have seen a couple very small thumbnails and rutilated quartz crystals. 

A nice sample of zircon from an unusual locality, with two decently sized zircon crystals frozen in their matrix.  The crystals do have a bit of damage, but I am offering it because the crystals are decently sized and the locality is quite unusual-- almost all the zircon from the general area seems to come from Astor, in Northern Pakistan.

A very rare example of fluorite from Myanmar, consisting of tightly packed aggregates of cubic crystals that almost have a pseudo-botryoidal appearance.  Burma produces a fair quantity of mineral specimens and even more gem rough, but fluorite is certainly not one of the minerals you see from the country very often!

A nice thumbnail sized specimen of betafite from the Silver Crater Mine, arguably the source of the best betafites in the world.  This one is contacted on the reverse, but has sharp edges, clear faces, and displays well from the front.