1.63" Bi-Colored Elbaite Tourmaline Crystal - Rubaya, Congo

This is a gem quality, 1.63" long, bi-colored elbaite tourmaline crystal that was collected from the Rubaya mining sites in Democratic Republic of the Congo. The base of the crystal has light-pink coloration which then transitions to colorless, and then to a beautiful green at its termination. A pink tourmaline can be seen laying within a gap on this specimen.

It has been mounted to an acrylic display base with mineral tack for aesthetic presentation.

Elbaite is a form of tourmaline and is perhaps the most multicolored mineral. It has been discovered in virtually every color of the spectrum and has dramatically increased in popularity since the 1990s. While specimens are commonly faceted into gemstones, most high quality crystals are left as is, or are cut and sold as cross-sectional slices. Elbaite forms as short, stubby, and/or elongated prismatic crystals, often with striations that run along their length. Aggregates of elbaite can occur as botryoidal, columnar, radiating crystals, and in compact masses.

Elbaite has a variety of names (classic and modern) depending on the colors it presents, including achroite (colorless variety), blue cap tourmaline, chrome tourmaline (green variety caused by chromium impurities), fluor-elbaite, indicolite (blue variety), Moor's head tourmaline, mushroom tourmaline, Paraiba tourmaline, rubellite (pink-red variety), siberite (purple variety), verdelite (green variety), and watermelon tourmaline (green exterior with red interior).

The chemical formula of elbaite is Na(Li,Al)3Al6(BO3)3Si6O18(OH)4


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DETAILS
SPECIES
Tourmaline var. Elbaite
LOCATION
Rubaya, Bahunde, Masisi Territory, North Kivu, DR Congo
SIZE
1.63" long crystal
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#206899