The cuprites from the Rubtsovskiy Mine in Russia are widely considered the best ever found. The Rubtsovskly Mine is an operating copper mine, and the oxidation zone has produced Cuprites, Azurites, native copper, silver, and iodine minerals like Miersite. I have been following the production for the last two years, to better understand how these are unique and what pieces stand out from "the crowd." About 95+% of the production have damage of some kind to a corner or edge. This is largely due to the miners who when extracting crystals from the kaolin clay zone (which protects the Cuprites), they drop them into their pockets, and they get dinged. 

These two cuprite crystals have mostly been replaced by copper, but not entirely. It weighs 15.8 grams and is in excellent condition, no damage. 

TOURM49 - Tourmaline Var. Bi-color Elbaite
$ 95.00 SOLD NET
Cruzeiro Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil
thumbnail - 1.8 x .9 x .7 cm

A stunning bi-color red and green gemmy tourmaline. Classic cruzeiro bi-color thumbnail.

2.4 grams / 12 carats.

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PHENAKITE4 - Phenakite
$ 195.00 SOLD
Anjanabonoina Pegmatites, Antananarivo Province, Madagascar
miniature - 3.2 x 1.0 x 1.2 cm

Sharp transparent crystal. Gemmy. No damage.

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RHODOCHROSITE7 - Rhodochrosite on matrix
$ 895.00 SOLD
Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua, Mexico
miniature - 3.8 x 3.2 x 2.6 cm

I got this out of an old collection recently. The Rhodochrosite crystal measures 2.9 cm long by 1.3 cm wide. The crystal is rich crimson red, gemmy and facet-grade. 

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FLUORITE13 - Fluorite
$ 475.00 SOLD
Riemvasmaak, Kakamas Dist. Northern Cape Prov., South Africa
small cabinet - 7.1 x 5.7 x 3.7 cm

These attractive lime green fluorites often occur covered in Quartz, in this remote south African mine. As part of the prepping, the fluorites are immersed in Hydrofluoric acid (think of the blood in the movie Alien that dissolves metal) that dissolves Quartz but not the Fluorite. There are current major problems with production at the mine, and future mining is uncertain.

This piece is remarkably bright and tranparent. The saturated green color seems unreal it's so strong. Numerous octohedral crystals are stacked on one another.139 grams.

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PHENAKITE3 - Phenakite
$ 950.00 SOLD
Sao Miguel de Piracicaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil
miniature - 3.4 x 2.9 x 3.1 cm

This is a fantastic cluster of massive phenakite crystals. The largest crystal is 3.3 cm across. Phenakites this size are exceptionally rare. There are three smaller phenakites on the backside of the massive one. Phenakites from this mine tend to be rather cloudy, but these are rather transparent. It has a contact at the bottom of the large crystal where it attached to another crystal. It has some embedded mica crystals. Fantastic piece. 25.8 grams.

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