Tiffany Stone / Opalized
Fluorite / Bertrandite Gem
click to enlarge:
Opal
Fluorite 11/20/11 - 02 - Super Nice Large Designer Cut Rare Purple Brecciated Super Patterned
Gem! AAA+ WoW~
52
x 22 x 5.5 mm - 43 carat - $95.00
PLUS
SMALL FLAT RATE BOX SHIPPING
SOLD
You are bidding on one Rare Purple Gem of Opalized Fluorite!
This material is one of the most scarce,
beautiful and unusual stones in the world, this stone only comes from
one very small area of beryllium mines in the Utah west desert where
they mine (the 4th lightest element) beryllium for use in missile nose
cones and many other high-tech metallurgical uses. It is not open to
the public for collecting and very little of this material sees
anything other than the ore crusher to extract the about 1% to 2%
beryllium contained in the opal tuff. Try to find this exquisite
gemstone and you'll see that it's not only very rare, it is
very scarce. It is a soft to hard opalized stone that forms in
very small to 100+ pound "nodules", composed of predominantly
opalized fluorite (blues, purples and whites), often with many
other minerals such as quartz, dolomite, rhodonite, manganese,
beryllium and other surprises. It often has a "crackled" appearance
and is sometimes called "Tiffany Stone", "Bertrandite" "Purple Opal"
or "Ice Cream Opalite". I call it Opal-Fluorite.
UPDATE: I am now out of the lower grades and
bulk material and not much of the higher grades either. There is no more of this
available where I used to dig it so the price has gone up and soon there will
be no more available.
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