Sometimes I feel like am living in Gemstones Nirvana in my small corner of the planet here in Jos, Nigeria... The geological setting of Central Nigeria makes it an excellent setting.
My eyes popped when I was offered a 35.9grams(179.5 Carats) Peach Topaz with a Rutile-like needle in the middle. Offcourse light topaz is everywhere around here, but peach topaz??? Was so good at being peach, it was lying there in a parcel of Morganites.
Today in the middle of a low, a miner approached me with 25.5g(127.5Carats) of Flawless completely water-worn oval shaped Amethyst! I do see crystal amethyst all day, but Amethyst discovered from alluvial deposits!! Made my day. Took some serious time clearing my doubts on whether it was really amethyst.
Offcourse, the above two pieces come with a downside, being that the miners have it in mind that this pieces being so exceptional should be priced in similar ways with sapphires and tourmalines. So in the end I have to do the unthinkable..return these stones. returned.... Yep, the story is always a tragedy.
I really like the peach topaz. Generally stronger saturations aren't very common in this kind of topaz and the lighter peaches look a lot like a lighter-toned imperial topaz, while darker ones take on a more prominent brown component. The problem is that the market is all screwy thanks to the extreme prevalence of fading Pakistani stones on the market. If this stone holds its color in sunlight it would be much more suitable for jewelry, but from my own poking around online I'm not sure how much of a market there is for it, since the difference isn't something you can really demonstrate.
It's not uncommon to see amethyst crystals with the edges worn off but that's probably the first fully-rounded pebble I've seen. I haven't got a clue why that would be though.
Post subject: Re: EXCITING FIELD FINDS; WATER-WORN AMETHYST AND PEACH TOPA
Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2017 11:02 pm
Valued Contributor
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 11:29 am Posts: 142
Benshak,
Thanks for posting the pictures! Your enthusiasm is contagious... I enjoy the out of the ordinary finds as well, whether they are worth something or not. Please keep the pictures and stories coming!
Post subject: Re: EXCITING FIELD FINDS; WATER-WORN AMETHYST AND PEACH TOPA
Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2017 11:48 am
Valued Contributor
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:49 pm Posts: 331 Location: South Africa
The Topaz looks nice as it is. If that saturation were to be faceted, very little colour would remain.
The Amethyst would be a novelty, never seen any water worn myself. Same SG as silica makes it really difficult to aggregate as normal alluvium would. Alluvial Beryl is also pretty unusual.
I do have some alluvial quartz which looks orange on the outside, probably staining, but faceted comes out a sleepy pale pink.
Post subject: Re: EXCITING FIELD FINDS; WATER-WORN AMETHYST AND PEACH TOPA
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2017 2:15 am
Gold Member
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:52 pm Posts: 1131 Location: Central Queensland, Australia
I particularly like the topaz.
Quote:
Interesting, there must be more of it out there than I presumed.
As Stephen points out, weathered crystals are not unusual, water worn one are another ball game. Interesting, there must be more of it out there than I presumed.
As Stephen points out, weathered crystals are not unusual, water worn one are another ball game.
The deposit of (mostly low-grade) amethyst I have been digging has a creek running through and we found waterworn amethyst and smoky crystals in it. That's what clued us onto the fact that it was there somewhere close by - I then walked up the hill above the creek and found an amethyst crystal in the dirt stuck around the upturned roots of a fallen tree, started digging and found the site to be full of quartz crystals. I'm hoping to get back down there over the next week ore so, I might have another look among the boulders in the creek.
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